 Japan also indicated specific support for an agro-industrial park to be built near Jericho, and said it hopes to begin construction by 2009.Considering Israel's and Japan's shared democratic values, open trade policies, complementary business and industrial environments, and close alliance with the United States, relations between the two countries have long remained strikingly underdeveloped, until approximately 2014, when both governments moved to significantly upgrade diplomatic and business ties.This rapid warming of relations is evidenced by the two countries entering into a number of important political and economic agreements – from a series of high-level dialogues on national security and cybersecurity to their first bilateral investment agreement – transforming their once limited bilateral relationship into one more characteristic of allied partners, a process that has been described as "rising sun relations" in Foreign Affairs Magazine.