Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko heads to Japan on Wednesday for a five-day visit focused on boosting investment and trade between his ex-Soviet nation and one of the world’s most powerful economies.

Yushchenko will meet Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and will be received by Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko during his trip, which will take him to Tokyo, Aichi and Hiroshima, the Japanese embassy in Ukraine said ahead of the visit.

Yushchenko will be accompanied by First Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Kinakh, Economy Minister Serhiy Teryokhin and Transport Minister Yevgen Chervonenko.

During the trip, Kiev and Tokyo are due to sign a bilateral agreement necessary for Ukraine’s bid to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which Kiev hopes to do by the end of the year.

This document "will be a big push for Ukraine’s accession to the World Trade Organisation," Japanese ambassador to Ukraine, Kishichiro Amae, told reporters.

Yushchenko is also expected to announce that Kiev will drop visa requirements for visiting Japanese nationals, following similar measures for citizens of the European Union, Switzerland and the United States.

Topping the agenda for talks will be increasing bilateral trade between the two nations, which today stands at $500 million annually.

"We believe this is a very small figure and the presidential visit to Japan will give a big impulse to increase our bilateral trade," Amae said.

Yushchenko, who has focused on attracting foreign investment to Ukraine ever since coming to power during the "orange revolution" late last year, will also seek to boost Japanese investment into the ex-Soviet nation, which at the end of last year stood at just $42 million.

Ukraine is particularly interested in drawing Japanese investments "in the field of new technologies and know-how," Industry minister Volodymyr Shandra said last week.