TOKYO (Reuters) -- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida started a tour of key Western partners on Monday, after unveiling his country’s biggest military buildup since World War Two.
Kishida, who will host a summit of the Group of Seven (G7) industrial powers in May, will meet leaders of the United States, Britain, France, Italy and Canada this week. Talks are expected to range from economic security and semiconductors to the war in Ukraine and rising tensions with nuclear-armed China and North Korea.
He visits London and Rome after agreeing last month to develop a new jet fighter with those countries. He is to sign a deal with Britain that will establish a legal framework to allow visits by each other’s armed forces, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Friday.
Issues on Friday’s final stop at the White House are expected to include Japan’s plans to arm itself with missiles able to strike targets in China or North Korea, the bilateral defense agreement and efforts to limit China’s access to advanced semiconductors.
Tokyo and Washington hope the more muscular military policy Kishida announced last month, a further move away from Japan’s pacifist postwar constitution, will close a widening missile gap with China.
Japan’s new defensive capabilities may require Washington and Tokyo to revise guidelines that define the roles they play in a decades-old alliance that lets the United States keep warships, fighter jets and thousands of troops in Japan.
Last revised in 2015, the guidelines will likely be among the subjects discussed by Japan’s defense and foreign ministers and their U.S. counterparts on Wednesday before Kishida meets President Joe Biden, a Japanese defense ministry official told a briefing on Friday.
On semiconductors, Japan and the United States are deepening cooperation on advanced chip development amid growing trade tension with China.
Both countries are eager to ensure their manufacturers have access to components considered key to the new technology-driven industries such as data storage, artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
Although Kishida has said he backs Biden’s attempt to limit China’s access to advanced semiconductors with export restrictions, he has not agreed to match sweeping curbs on exports of chip-manufacturing equipment the U.S. administration imposed in October.