WASHINGTON (CN) — As he stood before lawmakers and members of the White House cabinet to affirm his country’s friendship with the United States, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida summarized his own relationship with America using a Flintstones anecdote.
“I could never translate ‘yabba-dabba-doo,’” Kishida said Thursday, prompting laughter from members gathered in the House chamber as he addressed a joint session of Congress.
The prime minister, the son of a Japanese government trade official who spent his early years living in New York, described his “strong attachment” to the U.S. as he recalled attending public school in Queens and taking family trips to Washington.
That affinity has served to drive home Kishida's desire to double down on Japan’s longstanding alliance with the U.S., which he said is an international standard bearer for democratic values.
“The world needs the United States to continue playing this pivotal role in the affairs of nations,” he said.
Kishida, the Japanese prime minister since September 2021, opined that the need for strong U.S. leadership aligns with a historical turning point: The world now faces challenges that will “define the next stage of human history.”
Regional and international security threats posed by countries like Russia and China, he said, are among those challenges.
The prime minister reaffirmed Japan’s support for Ukraine and its defense against Russia, pointing out that Tokyo has sent billions of dollars in aid to Kyiv for the war effort.
Kishida couched his support for the Ukraine war in the idea that a similar conflict could soon arise in his own backyard. “The Ukraine of today,” he said, “may be the East Asia of tomorrow.”
Turning to the Indo-Pacific region, Kishida said Chinese military and economic encroachment presents and “unprecedented and greatest strategic challenge” not only to Japan, but also to the international community at large.
Japan has had to respond to these changing threats, he said, referencing Tokyo’s 2022 commitment to hike its defense budget by roughly 2% of its GDP over a five-year period — a significant military investment for a country whose own constitution has long barred it from maintaining a standing army.
Despite that buildup, Kishida said Japan was bent on maintaining peace in the Indo-Pacific region.
“Our commitment to upholding a free and international order based on the rule of law, as well as peace, will continue to be our defining agenda going forward,” he said.
Kishida called on Congress to support efforts to build multilateral cooperation in the region, arguing that such policy should command “strong bipartisan support.”
The Japanese prime minister also addressed threats posed by North Korea, particularly the country’s efforts to develop long-range missiles capable of delivering a nuclear payload. Pyongyang regularly conducts tests of such technology over the Sea of Japan.
A native of Hiroshima, Kishida said he is devoted to ridding the world of nuclear weapons and has worked to revitalize international treaties governing nuclear nonproliferation.
He added that cooperation between the U.S. and Japan was vital “now more than ever” to reduce the possibility of nuclear weapons use by Russia in Ukraine.
Kishida said that, while visiting the U.S., he has noticed what he called “an undercurrent of self-doubt” among Americans about their role on the international stage. He sought to allay those concerns and told lawmakers the U.S. is “indispensable” to the global world order.
But Washington shouldn't be expected to handle that burden alone, he said, and offered up Japan as a partner in upholding democratic values.
“I do not want to leave our children in a society where human rights were suppressed, where political self-determination was denied and where our lives were monitored by digital technology,” said Kishida. “I know you don’t, either.”
The prime minister left lawmakers with a message of solidarity, tracing Japan’s history as a “reticent ally” of the U.S. following World War II to its status as Washington’s tomodachi, or close friend.
“The democratic nations of the world must have all hands on deck,” said Kishida, and Japan is already standing shoulder to shoulder with the U.S. “You are not alone. We are with you.”
Before becoming Japan’s leader, Kishida was foreign minister under the administration of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — who was assassinated in 2022. Kishida, president of Japan’s dominant Liberal Democratic Party, ascended as prime minister after the short-lived leadership of Yoshihide Suga.
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