With the ongoing war in Ukraine, international groups like the G7 play an increasingly important role in establishing global stability and peace. As the new G7 president, it is particularly important for Japan to showcase its efforts to protect the rules-based international order and stop unilateral attempts to change the status quo.

Ahead of the G7 summit taking place in Hiroshima in May, Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida visited 5 of the G7 countries and stated that he’d meet with Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, before the summit as they could not meet this time.

The main purpose of Kishida’s visit was to brief the countries’ leaders on the expected agenda for the summit. This includes the promotion of a free and open Indo-Pacific by holding dialogue with China.

Furthermore, Kishida reiterated his three most pressing security concerns: the Russia-Ukraine war, nuclear weapons and coping with a rising China. Accordingly, Japan recently announced its plan to increase its defense budget by a record 20 percent.

This new policy, although criticized by opposition parties, was fully supported by United States President, Joe Biden. Since, as Kishida himself stated, Japan is at a turning point in history, the upcoming changes in the Indo-Pacific and in the world are getting harder to predict.