Amid deep divisions on Capitol Hill over how much Washington should involve itself in the affairs of other nations, Japan’s leader on Thursday exhorted lawmakers to continue to robustly support an internationalist foreign policy while promising that Japan was now ready to help the U.S. carry the load.
“As the United States’ closest friend, tomodachi, the people of Japan are with you, side by side, to assure the survival of liberty,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, using the Japanese word for friend in one of the loudest applause lines of his speech before a joint meeting of Congress. “Not just for our people but for all people.”
Kishida became the second Japanese leader to address Congress, following former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. But whereas much of Abe’s 2015 speech was about closing the book on lingering tensions from Japanese actions during World War II and Japanese support for a multinational Asia-Pacific trade deal the U.S. never joined, Kishida was defense-focused and future-oriented.
