Government consultations: Scholz and ministers arrived in Japan

For the first time, a Federal Chancellor has flown to Japan with a government delegation. Scholz wants to deepen relations with the East Asian country. One focus should be economic security.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz and six of his ministers have arrived in Tokyo for the first Japanese-German intergovernmental consultations. After a flight of more than twelve hours overnight with the government plane “Konrad Adenauer”, they landed in the Japanese capital.

The consultations between the two governments are intended to significantly improve relations between the already close friends. They are led by Scholz and the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The return trip is scheduled for Sunday morning.

The focus should be on the topic of economic security. The main aim is to expand international cooperation in order to reduce dependency on individual economic powers – for example when it comes to importing raw materials. Germany wants to learn lessons from its former dependence on Russia for gas, which could only be broken after the Russian invasion of Ukraine through a tour de force.

There are also defense issues

Japan, which also imports large quantities of raw materials, has enacted its own law on economic security, which the federal government regards as exemplary. A separate ministerial post was also created for the priority topic.

The meeting also deals with defense issues. The Bundeswehr has already sent a warship and fighter jets to the Pacific region to strengthen cooperation with friendly armed forces there. She wants to take part in exercises again this year. “We will continue to fly the flag in the Indo-Pacific,” said the German delegation.

There are several territorial conflicts in the South China Sea between China and countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. Added to this is the conflict between China and Taiwan, which sees itself as independent, which the government in Beijing does not accept.

First Asian country that Scholz visited in 2022

Government consultations – i.e. meetings of several cabinet members from both sides – are nothing new for the federal government. In the past, for example, they already existed with China, India, Brazil, Israel and, until 2012, also with Russia. In this way, relationships with partners who are already close or strategically important are further deepened. According to the German delegation, the fact that Japan is now being accepted into this “exclusive club” is “a logical completion”.

After taking office, Scholz made great efforts to deepen relations with Japan. In April 2022, it was the first Asian country he visited. He deliberately did not follow the example of his predecessors, Angela Merkel and Gerhard Schröder, who traveled to China first.

Germany wants to position itself more broadly

Scholz was already sending out the signal back then that Germany wanted to position itself more broadly in Asia in order to reduce its economic dependency on China. The Chancellor will be accompanied in Tokyo by six ministers: Economics Minister Robert Habeck, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Finance Minister Christian Lindner, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Transport Minister Volker Wissing. An eleven-strong business delegation was to be added on site.

Japan currently chairs the G7, a group of economically strong democracies. The annual summit takes place in Hiroshima in May. Scholz will then travel to Japan again.