Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's current visit to the United States will be a qualitative leap forward in US-Japan relations in terms of arrangements and topics. From the perspective of the United States' inability to do so in many places, Japan's surrender to the United States is to transform the relationship between the two countries from the "US-Japan-shield" model to an "immortal alliance" by contributing its own scientific, technological, economic, and military capabilities.
Kishida held a summit meeting with Biden as a "state guest", and another arrangement was to speak at the "joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives" in the US Congress on the 11th. This arrangement is extremely unusual for Japan, and it is the first time that a Japanese prime minister has been received by this specification since Shinzo Abe in 2015. The last Japanese minister who was invited to speak to the U.S. Congress before Abe was Yuto Ikeda in 1961, and before that were Shigeru Yoshida and Nobusuke Kishi. Abe was the first Japanese prime minister to be invited to give a speech at the joint session of the House of Councillors and the House of Representatives.
In the first three and a half years of Biden's first term, only four heads of state were invited to visit the United States as "state guests", Macron's in 2022, Yoon Suk-yeol in 2023, Indian Prime Minister Modi, and Australian Prime Minister Albanese. In terms of distribution, most of them are related to Indo-Pacific and China issues.
According to the information revealed by the Japanese side, the tone of the US-Japan summit will be "not to deal with historical issues," emphasizing that it will be a US-Japan relationship with an "eye to the future," and the main purpose is an "immortal alliance" between the two countries, which will forever tie Japan to the US chariot.
Historically, compared with the "72 System," in which Japan established diplomatic relations with China and severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and chose to take the economy as the main axis of national interests, the "First Five-Year Plan" is a turning point in contemporary Japan, declaring that Japan will take the perspective of "security and security" as the main axis of its national interests.
When Abe spoke to the U.S. Congress in April 2015, there were two main axes, one was mainly to clean up the burden of Japan's World War II, including the "unspeakable World War II complex" between Japan and the United States, so he invited people related to the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II to witness his speech. Second, he set the theme of his speech as "Toward an Alliance of Hope" to highlight the relationship between the United States and Japan and to declare to the world that Japan will share the responsibility of world freedom and democracy with the United States.
On August 14 of that year, he expressed Japan's apologies for World War II and said that Japan would not need to apologize in the future, in May 2016 at the G7 summit in Japan, he invited Obama to Hiroshima Peace Park to lay flowers, and in December 2016, Abe went to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii to lay flowers and pay tribute to Pearl Harbor-related facilities and cemeteries. The purpose of these arrangements is to clean up the scars of people's feelings between the two countries.
In July 2015 and September 2015, the House of Councillors passed the revised peace and security legislation, and in August 2016, the concept of a free and open Indo-Pacific was proposed.
It can be said that the U.S.-Japan relationship proposed by Abe during his visit to the United States in 2015 can be called the main axis of a "coalition of hope", and his series of policies and actions since then have been aimed at this.
During that time, Fumio Kishida was the foreign minister at the beginning of Abe's second regime, with a term of office of 4 years and 7 months, and he was basically a key party in the development of US-Japan relations during that period.
In the Indo-Pacific strategy, Trump proposed it in 2017 and continued it until Biden took office in 2021, and it is still the core of the U.S. international strategy. In Japan, after Yoshihide Suga took over as prime minister in September 2020, he also continued to move towards the path of the Indo-Pacific strategy, and even persuaded the Biden administration to accept the Indo-Pacific strategy as the international strategy of the United States. After the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, the call of "Ukraine today, East Asia tomorrow" from Kishida's mouth pushed the strategy of "a free and open Indo-Pacific" to the world.
In terms of Japan's own reform and foreign behavior, in addition to the three defense documents revised in 2022, which raised military spending to 2% of GDP in one fell swoop, which was greatly appreciated by the Biden administration, Kishida himself and his two foreign ministers, namely Yoshimasa Hayashi and Yoko Kamikawa, flew around the globe, especially for countries in the Global South, with the aim of promoting the "Indo-Pacific strategy". In addition, in terms of defense equipment, through the "Government Security Capability Enhancement Support" program, it has provided patrol boats and other equipment in the Indo-Pacific region, especially in Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines, free of charge, to continuously weave a net in the Indo-Pacific strategy.
Through these performances, Japan has filled the void of the decline of the United States' national strength, and it has also shown unprecedented solidarity and follow-up with the United States. On this basis, the keynote of Kishida's visit to the United States is to demonstrate to the world that the United States and Japan are "leading on globalization issues" and "strengthening their relations toward the future." This is the logic behind the trip to no longer deal with the past relations between the two countries, but to set the tone of an "immortal alliance".
It can be seen from the main entourage of Kishida's visit to the United States, including Foreign Minister Yoko Uekawa, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Masahito Moriyama, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Takeru Saito, and Director of the National Security Agency Takeo Akiba. Key topics expected to be addressed at the Summit include:
1. Security and military aspects:
1. The issue of the coordination of the U.S. and Japanese command systems: This is mainly due to the command and coordination between Japan and the United States after Japan will establish the "Integrated Command" at the end of 2024, and also includes the authority and command of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and the U.S. Military Command in Japan.
2. Establish a system for the joint production of defense equipment: U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Campbell personally confirmed this issue in a speech a few days ago. Campbell said this is a lesson learned from the global pandemic, and the supply chain on the military side also needs to respond.
3. U.S. ships stationed in Japan will be repaired on the spot in Japan, especially supply ships or transport ships that can be brought back to the United States for refurbishment without having to travel thousands of miles, which is conducive to the mobility of the United States and Japan.
4. In terms of promoting the "Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy", it will mainly deal with the AUKUS security agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, which is the main purpose of the National Security Director's accompaniment. Since Japan is still limited by the "three non-nuclear principles", it will not touch the "nuclear submarine" on the AUKUS issue, but the related technical cooperation and the enhancement of submarine warfare and cyber warfare capabilities can be promoted cooperatively, that is, the "denuclearized" version of AUKUS.
5. In the joint statement, it is necessary to reaffirm that the Diaoyu Islands are within the scope of defense under Article 5 of the US-Japan Security Treaty.
2. Science and technology, space, and green energy include:
1. Moon: The two countries are working together to promote the Artemis program, which is expected to complete the exploration activities of astronauts from both countries to land on the moon in 2026.
2. Rocket launch "spaceport" program: The United States and Japan plan to cooperate in the space program of rocket launches, and hope to launch American spacecraft in Japan's "Oita Prefecture" and other programs, and it is also expected to provide $8 million in funds to promote student exchanges between the two countries.
3.AI Technology: It is expected to establish an industry-government-academia structure and provide US$110 million in funding to promote research projects.
4. Quantum, 5G and other technology development cooperation.
5. Green energy: This part involves Biden's greatest concern about climate change, zero carbon emissions, green energy development, and the major keys to Japan's industrial transformation, as well as the layout of the industrial chain in the Indo-Pacific region.
Since the field of science is in charge of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan, this is why Minister Masahito Moriyama accompanied him.
3. International relations include:
1. Taiwan Strait, of grave concern to China: The United States and Japan will not discuss the "Taiwan" issue this time, but they are expected to include "the importance of maintaining peace and security in the Taiwan Strait" in the joint statement of the two countries. As a matter of fact, a considerable part of the discussions, including military, national security, and diplomatic issues, were carried out on the premise that "Taiwan has trouble" and "Taiwan Strait security".
2. QUAD, East Asia South, AUKUS: Kishida revealed in an exclusive interview on April 3 that he observed the Biden administration's handling of the Indo-Pacific region, and that in the past, the United States used to focus on multiple bilateral relations, but now it is moving to multiple network architectures, which will be something to reconfirm during this trip.
3. Southeast Asia: The two countries will strengthen cooperation with Southeast Asia, in addition to countering China, in the areas of economic security, semiconductors, and minerals.
4. Ukraine-Russia conflict and the Gaza Strip: In the United States, as the Republican Party is hesitant to continue to aid Ukraine, Biden also needs Japan's continued support. Since the oil crisis in the last century, Japan has maintained good relations with all aspects of the Middle East, and this is where Biden wants to take advantage.
Fourth, Kishida visited the North Carolina Toyota Depot
Trump is likely to return, and the Kishida administration chose to visit the Toyota plant in North Carolina in order to hint at Japan's contribution to providing U.S. jobs and the economy.
The United States, Japan, and the Philippines:
In order to cooperate with the invitation of state guests, the United States also invited Marcos Jr. of the Philippines to visit the United States at the same time, and a tripartite meeting between the United States, Japan, and the Philippines will be held on April 11.
In fact, just before the US-Japan-Philippines summit, the defense ministers of the United States, Japan, the Philippines and Australia issued a joint statement on April 6, stating that they would conduct the "first" joint training of the four navies in the waters around the Philippines on 7 April, including submarine operations, and hinted that the training would become a "routine" exercise.
Strictly speaking, this is the second high-level meeting between the United States, Japan and the Philippines, the first of which was held by Harris, Kishida and Marcos Jr. at the ASEAN meeting in Indonesia in September 2023. This time it has been raised to the height of Yubaian, and the degree of attention is indescribable.
On the U.S. side, since Marcos Jr. took office, relations have warmed up rapidly, not only the number of US military bases in the Philippines has increased to nine, but the top leaders of the Biden administration, including Blinken and Austin, have visited, and the navies of the two countries have patrolled the South China Sea many times, provoking China.
Not only Marcos Jr. and Kishida have exchanged visits, but Japan has also provided the Philippines with a number of large coast guard ships. Negotiations are also under way to facilitate the exchange of Japanese and Philippine militaries, and it is only a matter of time before it is passed.
Kishida's visit to the United States and the "US-Japan-Philippines Summit of Heads of State" have demonstrated that the "US-Japan alliance" has completely transformed from the past model of "US-Japan spear and Japan" to an "offensive and defensive alliance" in terms of content, so there are naturally more matters to be coordinated. Japan wants to share the responsibility for the United States, so as to assume more "international responsibilities" and move towards a "normal country", and this is why Kishida will use the "immortal alliance" as the main axis of his speech at the joint session of the US Senate and House of Representatives. The tiger was to be released from the cage, but the rope was still firmly pulled.