Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is seen confirming with U.S. and South Korean leaders at their upcoming meeting their cooperation on dealing with misinformation regarding the release into the sea of treated water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Kishida is also expected to use his meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden to accelerate discussions within Japan’s ruling camp on easing export rules on defense equipment.

The prime minister is set to meet Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at the Camp David presidential retreat near Washington on Aug. 18.

The three-way summit talks are expected to focus on measures against North Korea’s nuclear and missile development and security cooperation, including on the economic front, with China in mind.

At a meeting of Japanese government and ruling coalition officials on Tuesday, Kishida said that he hopes to make the trilateral meeting “an opportunity to further strengthen strategic cooperation among Japan, the United States and South Korea.”

Sources said that the Japanese leader hopes to raise the issue of dealing with false information over the discharge into the sea of treated water from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s meltdown-stricken nuclear power plant.

Some foreign media outlets reported in June that the Japanese government made donations to the International Atomic Energy Agency. China has described the treated water as “nuclear-contaminated water” and has slammed Japan at an international conference over its water release plan.

Tokyo has been stung by such moves and has discussed efforts to prevent the spread of misinformation with Washington and Seoul during a trilateral foreign ministers’ meeting and a phone meeting of the three countries’ vice foreign ministers last month.

During his visit to the United States, Kishida is scheduled to hold talks separately with the U.S. and South Korean leaders. He is expected to reiterate to Yoon the Japanese government’s stance of ensuring safety over the water discharge.

The Japan-South Korea summit meeting is likely to affect the timing of the water discharge, which Tokyo has set for around this summer. Some Japanese government officials have said that the release is unlikely to begin before Kishida’s meeting with Yoon, and a source noted that the prime minister is expected to bear the talks in mind in his consideration about when to start the discharge.

Kishida instructed the ruling bloc late last month to accelerate discussions on relaxing defense equipment export rules. The move came after the U.S. government, which continues to supply arms to Ukraine, urged Japan to deal with exports of such equipment flexibly.

“The United States and European countries have high expectations,” an official at the prime minister’s office said.

However, Komeito, the junior ruling coalition partner of Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party, maintained its cautious stance against easing the rules, especially amid speculation that an election for the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Japan’s parliament, may be held as early as this autumn. It is unclear when a conclusion can be reached within the ruling bloc.

Kishida is seen telling Biden that his government hopes to consider the matter swiftly and to cooperate over supporting war-torn Ukraine. The Japanese leader is then expected to use this as an “international pledge” to promote domestic discussions on the issue.

JIJI Press