British International Trade Secretary Liz Truss will visit Japan later this week to ink a post-Brexit bilateral free trade agreement, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

Truss will sign the deal at a ceremony with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on Friday, setting the stage for domestic ratification procedures as they aim to put the agreement into force next January, the ministry said.

The two countries had negotiated the deal as the existing free trade agreement between Japan and the European Union will not cover the United Kingdom beyond December when the Brexit transition period ends.

By signing the deal, "interests earned by Japan under the Japan-EU economic partnership agreement will continue and the business continuity of Japanese companies will also be ensured," the ministry said in a statement.

After launching negotiations in June, Motegi and Truss agreed in principle on the deal in September.

The deal with Japan is the United Kingdom's first trade pact with a major economy following its exit from the European Union in January 2020, as it has yet to wrap up trade talks with the bloc, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

The new deal removes tariffs on Japanese cars in stages to zero in 2026, which is the same as in the existing EU agreement, while London will immediately scrap tariffs on railway cars and auto parts.

Rules on e-commerce and financial services have become more ambitious than the Japan-EU pact, including the prohibition of restrictions on cross-border transfers of data, or on the location of computing facilities, according to the ministry.

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