Japan’s prime minister, Shinzō Abe, who is to meet Theresa May in London on Thursday, will underscore the damage Brexit is likely to have on Japanese investment in Britain by first visiting the Netherlands, the country to which many UK-based Japanese firms are redeploying ahead of the UK’s departure from the EU.

The choice of the Netherlands as the other stop on Abe’s mini-European tour is not a coincidence since he will also be given a chance to be briefed on how a no-deal Brexit could clog the flow of trade into Rotterdam, the main gateway for Japanese and British firms into the EU single market.

Abe is also likely at a Downing Street press conference to urge acceptance of Theresa May’s Brexit deal, but he will be watched to see how closely he echoes the words of the UK business secretary, Greg Clark, that a no-deal Brexit cannot be contemplated.

British officials insist the visit to London is not a panicked effort to dragoon influential overseas support for her deal, but instead forms part of a pattern of visits designed to strengthen relations with Japan across the fields of business, security and research.

But some Japanese firms have lost patience with the UK’s inability to provide Brexit certainty and are setting up parallel offices, primarily in the Netherlands, to ensure they have a bolthole in the event of a no-deal Brexit, or a deal that severely restricts UK-based firms’ access to the EU single market.

Companies that have transferred headquarters to Holland include Panasonic, and the banks Nomura and Daiwa.

The UK absorbs 40% of Japanese investment destined for the EU.

Jeroen CM Nijland, the commissioner of the Netherlands foreign investment agency, said the body was handling about 250 Brexit-related projects. Over the course of 2017, its caseload more than tripled and it has had to hire six additional staff. There are an estimated 1,000 Japanese firms operating in the UK employing 150,000 people.

The Japanese ambassador to London, Koji Tsuruoka, has already said “no private company can continue operations” in the UK if it becomes unprofitable.

Abe will hear directly from Japanese businesses based in the UK at a Downing Street reception. Firms such as Nissan have already demanded certainty, and said the reintroduction of UK-EU trading on World Trade Organization terms would mean tariffs on cars set at 10 %, wiping out fragile car industry profit margins.

In meetings in The Hague with the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, Abe will also be briefed on the preparations the Dutch government has been making to keep UK-European trade flowing.

The Dutch have also started hiring about 950 customs officers, mostly at Rotterdam port, Europe’s largest, to prepare for the extra bureaucracy required for British goods to enter the EU if the two sides do not reach a withdrawal agreement.

Abe will hardly be reassured by UK government-commissioned studies showing lorries could be waiting as long as six days to cross the channel.

Big queues at British ports would also destroy the “just in time” production methods at the heart of the car industry.

British officials are keen to emphasise the continuity in the UK relationship, including co-operation in the fields of artificial intelligence and ageing societies. British security co-operation with Japan over North Korea and the South China seas has also stepped up.

May will also confirm UK willingness to join the Japan-led regional free trade association, a successor to the Transatlantic Trade Partnership.

Japan is due to launch its free trade deal with the EU next month from which the UK will eventually be excluded.