Japan and Canada Reconfirm Cooperation

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi had a summit meeting with the prime minister of Canada, Mark Carney, in Tokyo on March 6th. Carney is known as a proponent of cooperation among “middle power” in the world. Takaichi and Carney agreed on enhancing bilateral coordination in economic security, when superpowers are growingly taking unilateral measures regardless the fact that their behavior is putting negative impact on international politics and economy.

Carney visited Tokyo as the final destination in his 10-day trip to Asia, following his stay in India and Australia. It was the first time for Canadian prime minister to visit Japan in these ten years. Takaichi and Carney met in their second opportunity for them as prime ministers, following the one in South Korea in November, 2025.

 

Carney is known as prompting “middle powers” in the world to work together to counter the rise of hard power and the great power rivalry, in order to build a more cooperative, resilient world, in 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Visiting those middle powers in Asia, including Japan, can be supposed as his attempt for implementation of his proposal to the world.

 

Both leaders shared a notion that “the international community stands at a turning point in history” in their joint statementfor their bilateral strategic partnership after the meeting in Tokyo. “Canada is one of the most important partners for promoting free and open Indo-Pacific, sharing common values of freedom, democracy or rule of law,” said Takaichi. Carney insisted on the importance of enhancing security and defense cooperation through information sharing and technological transfer.

 

Takaichi and Carney also signed on “comprehensive strategic roadmap” which committed to strengthening security and defense cooperation in key areas. On economic security, the leaders expressed “grave concerns over all forms of economic coercion,” including export restrictions on critical minerals. That provision reflected Japan’s standpoint, in which it faces pressure from China since last November, when Takaichi touched on Japan’s possible use of force in a contingency around Taiwan.

 

Both leaders reconfirmed their intention to enhance broader security relationship through cooperative framework for military industries. It is closely connected with Takaichi’s policy to encourage export of weapons, which has been limited in some non-lethal equipment. Takaichi upholds “crisis management investment” which encourages military industries for Japan’s economic growth.

 

Both leaders refrained from accusing strikes of the United States on Iran, killing Iranian supreme leader with bombing, while they accused Iran’s effective closure of Strait of Hormuz. It reflected their standpoint on this issue, in which Canada had to support the U.S. as a close ally and Japan needed to do the same, despite historically moderate relations with Iran, reflecting its preference to the Five Eyes, a cooperative framework of the countries with English language.

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