TOKYO: Japan has transformed rapidly over the past two years to achieve a larger presence in regional security and diplomacy, US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said Thursday.

The last two years, almost fully overlapping with Emanuel’s tenure as Washington’s top envoy to Japan, which started in early 2022, “will be known in history as the era of transition and transformation,” he told a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo.

“Japan has moved forward on defense in a quickened pace,” he said, citing major developments such as the revision of the Asian country’s three key defense documents in December 2022, its commitment to substantially increase defense spending and last month’s easing of its three principles on defense equipment transfer to allow exports to the United States of Patriot surface-to-air guided missiles made in Japan under license from a US firm.

Such moves proved wrong expert advice he received prior to assuming the ambassadorship that Japan moves at a slow speed, he said.

“As aggressors grow more belligerent, Japan is at the forefront of countries rallying to protect the peace and prosperity by raising the cost of aggression and ensuring (that) a multinational force presents a singular force of deterrence in this region,” Emanuel said, mentioning how the Japanese Self-Defense Forces is increasingly involved in multilateral military exercises in the Indo-Pacific.

Ensuring deterrence is needed to “make sure that…there is no change here in the region by military force,” referring to possible military actions by China in the Taiwan Strait following a recent presidential election on the self-ruled island, he said.

The ambassador said that Japan has swiftly emerged as a leader on the diplomatic stage and “set out to be a counterweight to regional aggressors.”

Japan showed leadership over support to Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion of the East European country, Emanuel said, noting that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s statement at the 2022 Asia Security Summit that “Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow” showed Tokyo’s ambition to assume diplomatic leadership.

Emanuel said that Tokyo has built up goodwill among Southeast Asian countries through massive development assistance, leading them to view Japan as “a bedrock of security and stability in the region.”

“Now, Japan is leveraging its (development aid) relationships for diplomatic ones,” he said, pointing to how the country urged Southeast Asian nations to oppose Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Emanuel also noted advances that Japan has made in trilateral relations with the United States and South Korea since the summit meeting among Kishida, US President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at the Camp David US presidential retreat near Washington last August.

The ambassador predicted that Japan and the United States will “consolidate what we have already achieved into a springboard” over the next two years to “expand deterrence capabilities through industrial defense cooperation, strategic procurement and broader network of security partners.”

JIJI Press