Press Conferences

Ms. KAMIKAWA Yoko, Minister for Foreign Affairs: I have an announcement.

The fourth meeting of the “Advisory Panel on Sustainability of the International Community” was held today. I received an interim report from intellectuals.

The Advisory Panel was established to consider creatively how to ensure Japan’s sustainable growth and the sustainability of the international community, looking at beyond 2030, the deadline for SDGs.

I, myself, have gained innumerable new perspectives and insights through the Advisory Panel’s free and open discussions to date. In particular, we have profoundly reaffirmed that many of Japan’s challenges related to sustainable growth and prosperity are closely linked to the challenges of achieving sustainability across the international community.

The effort to achieve sustainability throughout the international community is facing major difficulties. Under such circumstances, Japan must rebuild the economy and society, develop a model for realizing growth and sustainability simultaneously, and lead the international community by steadily tackling its challenges.

In my numerous foreign ministers’ meetings during the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) Ministerial Meeting, I felt high expectations placed on Japan’s technologies, a point that the interim report also made. For example, if Japan can present a vision of linking science with people and communities and contributing in a large scale, I believe it will lead to Japan playing an expanded role in the international community.

I intend to effectively utilize the various perspectives presented in the interim report in my future diplomatic activities.

This is all from me.

Yomiuri Shimbun, Kamimura: My question is about you. This month will mark one year since you assumed the office of Foreign Minister. How do you assess your achievements and the challenges over this past year?

Furthermore, you are aiming to run in the presidential election of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Please explain how your experience as Foreign Minister helps you in building up your credentials as Prime Minister and the LDP President.

Minister Kamikawa:

In response to your first question, yes, it will be nearly a year since I assumed the office of Foreign Minister. During that time, I visited a total of 43 countries and regions. The countries include Ukraine, which I visited to demonstrate Japan’s commitment to providing unwavering support, as well as Palestine, which I visited in response to the increasingly intense situation. The past year was also a crucial period when Japan had the G7 Presidency and had a major role as a non-permanent member of the United Nations (UN) Security Council.

Notably, the G7 Hiroshima Summit May last year was held in Hiroshima, the site of an atomic bombing. The leaders shared their determination to work toward a world without nuclear weapons and issued the G7 Hiroshima Vision on Nuclear Disarmament. I have carried forward its outcomes, and with a strong resolve to steadily implement the “Hiroshima Action Plan,” I have implemented it at the UN and various other opportunities.

Currently, the existing international order remains exposed to challenges. I understand that this is having a significant impact on the world’s politics and economy, as well as on people’s lives, including in Ukraine, the Middle East, and Gaza. It is also true that the scope of security has expanded into cyber, economy, and various other domains. Furthermore, as regards global challenges, global warming is causing severe impacts, including natural disasters, in all regions and countries every year. These issues cannot be solved by any single country. In this sense, I believe we must continue our efforts to prevent the effects in cooperation and collaboration with other countries.

To address the conflicts in this entire region or the impacts of global warming, including natural disasters, it is essential to strengthen our security cooperation with other countries, such as our ally and like-minded countries with shared values. Amidst the increasingly severe security environment surrounding Japan, we, as a partner for “co-creation,” have maintained and strengthened relations with various countries through dialogue and collaboration.

From this perspective, I held “2+2” meetings in July with the U.S. and the Philippines, respectively, and with India in August. The “2+2” meetings held with four countries in these two months, including the one with Australia this week, demonstrate the expanding depth and breadth of Japan’s security policy.

In this past year, I strongly sensed firsthand that Japan’s actions in historic times over the 80 years since the end of World War II have led to the significant trust and expectations the international community places on us, which truly owes to the efforts of our predecessors. Focusing on what Japan needs to do to live up to such trust and expectations, I have made diplomatic efforts aiming to contribute to global peace and cooperation, including Women, Peace and Security (WPS). I believe these efforts have obtained the support and agreement of many countries.

To pass on to the young generations of the future such trust and expectations, which are significant assets of Japanese diplomacy, it is important that I continue to press forward toward maintaining and strengthening a “free and open international order based on the rule of law” on the basis of two critical principles, “rule of law” and “human dignity.”

Second, there was a question about drawing on my experience as Foreign Minister. I have been working on the front lines of diplomacy as the face of Japan’s diplomacy. Division and confrontation are deepening in the current international society. Personal trust with the leader and foreign minister of each country has become more crucial than ever in holding extensive discussions and making decisions in response to the various events occurring in the international community.

With the security environment also becoming increasingly severe, I believe that the experience and trust I have built up can be largely leveraged in steering Japan’s diplomacy.

Needless to say, diplomacy and domestic affairs are closely intertwined. Confidence in domestic affairs, along with gaining the people’s understanding and support for domestic affairs, are extremely important. In line with the third basic policy I mentioned in my foreign policy speech, I believe that diplomacy that is understood and supported by the people can exert great power. I have conducted diplomacy based on this view. I expect that this, combined with achievements that have been made, enable the true value of diplomacy.

In traveling around the world as Foreign Minister, including Africa, India, and Latin America and the Caribbean, I saw women and young people thriving in their respective regions, with their eyes glimmering with ambition. I felt their powerful energy, their drive to break out of and break free from conventional frameworks. Such young people’s resolve to change and shape their countries was very much evident in their eyes.

While challenges are mounting, I will continue to do my job by making the most of this past year’s experience serving as Foreign Minister as the face of Japan’s diplomacy.

NHK, Igarashi:: I would like to ask a related question about the LDP presidential election. You have expressed your willingness to run in the election. With the official announcement approaching on September 12 of next week, could you update us on the recommendations you have secured so far? You also have official duties, including your visit to Australia from tomorrow. When will you be announcing your candidacy?

Minister Kamikawa: The question was about the presidential election. I am now in the last stages of securing recommendations for the presidential election, and the end is beginning to come into sight. I need to make some final arrangements. I will continue to do so meticulously, meeting with each and every person.

The preparations for announcing my candidacy are proceeding at an accelerated pace. Regarding where, at what time, and when the announcement will be made, I wish to make the arrangements in close consultation with the lawmakers who are supporting me. I am currently asking for their guidance.

In the course of these activities, what I have come to realize strongly is that my current activities for the presidential election themselves symbolize or show that the LDP will newly change, or that Japanese politics will change. I believe politics, which attaches importance to the process of listening to each other’s views and wishes and working together, is important for fulfilling all the dreams and hopes of the people. In this sense, I will continue this approach, attaching importance to this process itself.

I also feel that people overseas are paying attention to the future face of Japan. I will continue to make efforts here on out, while giving importance to introducing a new face of Japan.

Asahi Shimbun, Matsuyama: I have a question on the presidential election too. Chief Cabinet Secretary HAYASHI Yoshimasa, also from the former Kochikai faction, is scheduled to give a press conference this afternoon to announce his candidacy. Some note that Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi’s recommenders and supporters do not extend so much to non-former Kochikai members. You previously stated that your presidential election campaign will not be conducted along the lines of factional groupings. Coming from the same former Kochikai faction, what do you think about Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi’s moves and preparations for his press conference to declare his candidacy?

Minister Kamikawa: In this presidential election, each person who aspires to become President has started working to collect the recommendations needed for their candidacy and for what lies beyond. I would like to refrain from commenting on each candidate’s motivations and on what you just mentioned.

As I stated earlier, I have been conveying my views to each person. We have formed a team. Yesterday, they named it “Team Yoko,” with “Yoko” apparently written in kanji characters. We are working as a team. The expansion of its circle has given me a lot of strength, and I am grateful to the team. I will work hard until the very end to ensure that creating this momentum will lead to a new way of running in the presidential election.