Less than two months before a closely fought U.S. election, Japan's outgoing prime minister, Fumio Kishida, on Monday reiterated a call for continued U.S. involvement and leadership in East Asia and the world.
Kishida, who is not contesting a Japanese ruling party leadership election this week, told an event hosted by Bloomberg in New York that the foundation of the international order was being challenged in various parts of the world, including by Russia's aggression against Ukraine.
He said he had made every effort in office to strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance and reinforce Japan's defense capabilities "and to defend the free and open international order based on the rule of law."
"What kind of future do we intend to hand down to our children and grandchildren? It is not a world where freedom is restricted and the will of the people is suppressed," he said.
"It should be a safe and peaceful society based on freedom and democracy, which the United States has played a leading role in building since the end of World War Two," Kishida said. "Today, East Asia and the rest of the world need U.S. involvement and leadership. This is also for the U.S.'s own national interest."
Kishida is in the United States for this week's U.N. General Assembly and ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election that pits Vice President Kamala Harris against U.S. President Donald Trump, who has sometimes questioned the value of U.S. alliances and U.S. support for Ukraine.
On Saturday, Kishida joined U.S. President Joe Biden and the leaders of Australia and India in the so-called Quad forum to announce joint security steps in Asia's trade-rich waters in the face of growing challenges from China.
Kishida's remarks on Monday reprised a speech he gave to the U.S. Congress in April in which he said Ukraine risked collapsing under Russia's onslaught without U.S. support, which could embolden China and spark a new crisis in East Asia.
In that speech, Kishida urged Americans not to doubt the country's "indispensable" role in world affairs, and said Tokyo was undertaking historic military upgrades under his leadership to support its ally.
Later on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosted a trilateral meeting in New York with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and their South Korean counterpart Cho Tae-yul.
Blinken noted at the start of the meeting the impending U.S. and Japanese political transitions and said the intensified trilateral cooperation championed by Biden, Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol "will remain vital to the future of all three of our countries."
Kishida, who was speaking at an event featuring leading U.S. asset managers, repeated a call for investment in Japan, saying: "I would like to say even more strongly, like Captain Kirk in 'Star Trek:' 'Boldly invest in Japan, like no one has done before!'”
© Thomson Reuters 2024.
24 Comments
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TaiwanIsNotChina
Without the US civilized countries are on the their own in dealing with Russia and China.
Mr Kipling
Basically admitting that Japan is a vassal state. Good boy Kishida.
dbsaiya
What? I thought you said that Japan was going to be a leader on the world stage? A new, and strong Japan that is going to lead the world is also what your LDP successors are saying too.
Yrral
The Americans people lead their own destiny,if you can excert enough psychological pressure on a American politician ,the average can rule with an iron fist
Bruce Pennyworth
@TaiwanisNotChina is spot on. The US, like it or not is the hegemonic power. That changing will destabilize the world for a long time. The only two other options are Russia and China, take your pick.
Should be hoping for a Trump win to restore some world wide geopolitical order.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Going to be tough to do that with Trump in the pocket of Russia and retreating abroad.
WoodyLee
"What kind of future do we intend to hand down to our children and grandchildren? It is not a world where freedom is restricted and the will of the people is suppressed," he said.
Simple
Lets try to keep our noses out of other nations Businesses and respect their freedom to choose their path. The world is suffering from the results of being oppressed and abused by major powers including Russia and China and every other major powers.
If and when we learn to respect the will of all nations only then we will be able to live in a peaceful world.
New powers are rising and are rejecting the status quo, let us learn to accept that for a change.
JboneInTheZone
There can be no respect for the imperialistic, tyrannical and dominating ideologies of the CCP and Putin’s Russia. They are fundamentally opposed to a rules based world order and will try to destabilize it at any opportunity they have. It is liberal democracy and liberal democracy alone that has brought the unprecedented peace we’ve seen since the end of World War 2 and giving room for these fascistic regimes to grow only brings us closer to repeating the violence we saw in the 20th century.
u_s__reamer
What? Kishida just said he wants a world based on "rule of law" then in the next breath he declares that he wants to be led by the USA, the most egregious violator of international and humanitarian law alongside its protégé, Israel whose leaders have been instructing the world in high-tech genocidal destruction. You couldn't make this stuff up unless you were a politician or a gaslighting MSM propagandist.
What’s gone wrong?
Please. The USA can't lead itself. How can it lead others????
JboneInTheZone
Are there unicorns in this fantasy land you just described too? The dishonesty or just insane lack of education in claiming that the U.S. is the most egregious violator of international and humanitarian law when nations like Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia exist is just a bafflingly uneducated statement
TaiwanIsNotChina
No, Russia's 2022-present disgrace is still a current event.
happyhere
Cringeworthy and highly humiliating for Japan. The sooner he is replaced the better.
u_s__reamer
The track record of US foreign policy and the body count left in its wake extends further back than October 7 (May 8 1945 would be a good place to start) and its victims numbers in the millions, the envy of other major and minor rogue states like Israel, Russia, China, Indonesia etc (the list is too long to mention).
deanzaZZR
Did Kishida also admonish Israel for its bombing of civilians in Lebanon, an act antithetical to Article 1 of the United Nations Charter?
TaiwanIsNotChina
Trump tells us millions have died in Putin's War and Russia and China are complicit in the death in Vietnam and Korea.
JboneInTheZone
Where are you getting this millions number? Even if you’re correct (you’re not) that doesn’t even come close to the 30-45 million people the CCP killed in the Great Leap Forward.
DanteKH
Another proof that this guy was the main cause and because of him the Japanese cureency went into a deep dive compared to the USD, but other currencies as well, just to please his Masters from Washington DC.
And the local population keeps voting vor LDP, affraid of any change, because...culture of not wanting to change.
JJE
Did this hypocrite ever criticize US/NATO aggression against the following countries - Yugoslavia, Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya?
Of course not. He is just pumping smoke through a miniature transparent trumpet.
shogun36
What does this fool know about "leadership?"
Get lost already.
Anonymous
Once again I am thankful that none of the posters here are in responsable positions of leadership.
shogun36
I'm pretty sure, Kirk said nothing remotely close to that. But since the series ended decades ago, who knows?
And aren't the Chinese currently investing in Japanese land, like never before?
Hey Kish, how about doing something that you've never done before? Your actual job.
Tim Sullivan
Takaichi and Trump will be an interesting combination.
u_s__reamer
Where are you getting this millions number?
I realize the 3.5 million+ dead souls in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were probably before your time, but history books do still exist.
JboneInTheZone
Are you going to provide a source for this or are you just going to keep throwing out numbers and hope people just believe them? Im sure you won’t as any source will more than likely come to that number through a combination of North and South Vietnamese deaths
Also, I noticed you’ve failed to respond to my Great Leap Forward comment. Any reason why?