Big in Japan
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida makes the case for American internationalism during last week's state visit to Washington.
The missile and drone barrage Iran launched against Israel this past weekend understandably overshadowed last week’s state visit to Washington by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Coming amidst cherry blossom season in the nation’s capital—the annual springtime celebration of the close ties between the United States and Japan—the visit yielded a raft of substantive pledges and agreements that testified to the strength of the relationship between the two countries. But Prime Minister Kishida’s address to Congress stands out more than any program or policy announcements made during his visit—not even the news that a Japanese astronaut would become the first non-American to walk on the surface of the Moon.
As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did in his own address to Congress in December 2022, Kishida made the case for internationalism more forcefully and clearly than any American political leader has in recent years and decades. Though Kishida obviously lacks Zelenskyy’s battle-worn charisma and spoke in far more technocratic language, he still offered an argument for continued and active American involvement in global affairs—one that appealed to American interests and values alike. With his strong support for Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression, moreover, Kishida gently rebuked those foreign policy thinkers who argue that the United States should leave Europe to its own devices in order to focus obsessively on Asia.
But first, the substance:
Defense cooperation: The United States and Japan agreed to a number of initiatives intended to increase the cooperation between their militaries and defense industries, including the potential inclusion of Japan in the AUKUS partnership, working with Australia to build an integrated air defense network (a concept that’s proven its value in the Middle East), and creating mechanisms to better coordinate American and Japanese defense production.
Space exploration: In addition to the announcement that two Japanese astronauts will land on the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis Program, Japan will build a pressurized lunar rover to support Artemis missions and will participate in the Dragonfly robotic mission to Saturn’s moon Titan and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
Private investment: American and Japanese companies will invest billions of dollars in the American and Japanese economies in sectors like information and communication technology, auto and aircraft manufacturing, and infrastructure.
Science and technology cooperation: Beyond space exploration, American and Japanese research and development agencies will work together on quantum computing, semiconductors, and clean energy—including nuclear power—among other areas.
The full list of projects and programs gives both countries much to do and build out over time, assuming a second Trump presidency doesn’t occur and blow everything up. It also ought to put the acquisition of US Steel by a Japanese steelmaker in a more favorable light, though President Biden continues to support America’s main steelworkers union in its opposition to the deal. In any case, this menagerie of wide-ranging policy initiatives shows an already strong relationship becoming even stronger.
But it was Kishida’s address to Congress that made his state visit noteworthy. As with President Zelenskyy in December 2022, it once again fell to the leader of an allied nation to make the case for internationalism in a much more compelling way than any American political leader has done for quite some time.
After reminiscing about his years living in Queens as the child of a Japanese trade official, Kishida moved on to the crux of the matter: the safety and survival of freedom and democracy around the world depends on the active involvement of the United States in global affairs. “Without U.S. support,” he asked the assembled lawmakers, “how long before the hopes of Ukraine would collapse under the onslaught from Moscow? Without the presence of the United States, how long before the Indo-Pacific would face even harsher realities?”
Perhaps the most important part of Kishida’s remarks was the clear connection he drew between Japan’s own security and the war in Ukraine. He laid out the steps Japan has taken to support Ukraine, including $12 billion in military aid and hosting a reconstruction conference this past February. Indeed, Kishida’s focus on Ukraine stood in stark contrast to arguments from some quarters of the American foreign policy elite that Kyiv should be thrown to the wolves so the United States can devote all of its energies and resources to countering China instead. “As I often say,” Kishida reminded Congress, “Ukraine of today may be East Asia of tomorrow.”
If he lacked Zelenskyy’s eloquence and rhetorical force, Kishida’s overall message was clear enough: the struggle for freedom and democracy cannot be confined to one part of the world. It takes place in a global arena; no nation can isolate itself from the rest of the world and expect to remain secure, prosperous, or free. The defense of liberal values like freedom and democracy for all people remain central to the national interests of both the United States and Japan—and America doesn’t have to shoulder the burden alone. As Kishida put it, “Upholding these values is both a cause and a benefit for our two countries as well as for the generations to come across the world.”
It remains remarkable that foreign leaders like Zelenskyy and Kishida have made the best cases for American internationalism in recent memory. Perhaps they know all too well what will happen to their own democracies if America shirks its geopolitical responsibilities and duties. It isn’t a pretty picture: imagine Europe and East Asia effectively dominated by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. Ukraine would be liquidated as a nation and a democracy, subordinate once again to tyrants in the Kremlin. Japan would find itself standing alone against a belligerent and bullying China, forced to either knuckle under to Beijing’s diktats or find some way to resist them without backup from the United States. In short, it would be a return to the world as it was before 1945, a world ruled by what President Franklin D. Roosevelt called “the philosophy of force.”
It would be something of an enormous understatement to say that that world was not hospitable to democracy or American interests. As nations on the frontlines of freedom—literally in Kyiv’s case—Japan and Ukraine can see first-hand what a world dominated by the philosophy of force that prevails in Beijing and Moscow and Tehran means. It’s in that spirit that their leaders have made the case for internationalism that American political leaders cannot seem to make themselves.
It's unlikely that Kishida’s words will spur Congress to act on the military aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan that President Biden asked for more than six months ago now. Iran’s attack on Israel seems to have caused House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to move, albeit by breaking up the aid package into its constituent components; he also faces a possible revolt from the GOP’s aggressive pro-Putin wing that could endanger his speakership.
Still, like Zelenskyy before him, Kishida has made a compelling case for internationalism and active American involvement in global affairs. Those of us in the new vital center could do worse—much worse—than to follow their examples.