By Watanabe Tsuneo, senior research fellow, Sasakawa Peace Foundation   With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s military buildup in mind, holding concrete discussions on foreign and national security is indispensable for the ruling and opposition parties.   The United States no longer possess overwhelming power on either the economic or military fronts. With East Asia facing a more dire….Read more

By Imamura Takashi, director of Marubeni Research Institute   Continuity is an important element in foreign policy. If Japan is not consistent in foreign policy, it will not be able to win the international community’s trust.   China has become a strategic competitor. As the direction of globalization has changed, [there are countries that] only think about their own gain,….Read more

All national dailies reported on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s arrival in Hong Kong on Thursday to attend a ceremony to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the territory’s return to China on Friday. The trip is his first outside mainland China since January 2020, when China locked down the city of Wuhan due to the spread of the coronavirus. After arriving in….Read more

Nikkei reported on Foreign Minister Hayashi’s meeting with new Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.  in Manila on Thursday. After attending the inauguration ceremony for Marcos earlier in the day, Hayashi met him as a special envoy of Prime Minister Kishida.  The two reportedly agreed that their nations will closely cooperate to maintain and reinforce the rules-based maritime order amid China’s….Read more

MADRID–Prime Minister Fumio Kishida exchanged pleasantries with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at a dinner for NATO leaders on June 28, their first in-person meeting and a step toward repairing their countries’ long troubled relations.   But they are not expected to hold talks while in Madrid for the NATO summit out of fear it could stir backlash from conservative….Read more

TOKYO — North Korea is likely shipping coal directly to Chinese ports, activity that is banned from international trade under United Nations Security Council sanctions, a Nikkei investigation found.   Nikkei obtained satellite images of a North Korean-registered ship carrying coal, and confirmed that the ship directly went to China by examining data from the vessel’s automatic identification system (AIS).….Read more

Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the 64-year-old son of the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, takes his oath as the country’s 17th president on Thursday.   His desk will be stacked with pressing issues. He needs to decide how to address the South China Sea, amid the U.S.-China tug of war over the region. The Ukraine conflict has pushed up food and energy prices, squeezing….Read more

All national papers highlighted the summit between President Biden, Prime Minister Kishida, and South Korean President Yoon held on the margins of the NATO conference in Madrid on Wednesday. The three officials agreed to step up security coordination to curb North Korea’s nuclear and missile development. At the outset, President Biden expressed hope for “stronger trilateral coordination through the continuation….Read more

All national papers wrote that Prime Minister Kishida and ROK President Yoon exchanged greetings in Madrid on Wednesday. The premier reportedly congratulated Yoon on his election to the presidency and the victory of his ruling party in the nationwide local elections on June 1. Yoon reportedly responded by wishing Kishida a good outcome in the Upper House race on July….Read more