By Takuya Nishimura, Senior Fellow, Asia Policy Point
Former editorial writer for the Hokkaido Shimbun
You can find his blog, J Update here.
June 15, 2026
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi participates in her first Group of Seven (G7) summit in Evian, France from June 15 to 17. The meeting is the last stop for her; in the past few days, she has visited the United Kingdom and Italy. Her top diplomatic priority is securing Japan’s supply chain amid a volatile world order. Although Takaichi says she stands for a “diplomacy that flourishes on the world’s center stage,” her diplomacy is in fact heavily dominated by her own interests.
The first stop on her trip to Europe was London from June 13-14. In a meeting with United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Takaichi shared her concern over export restrictions on critical minerals and urged bilateral cooperation on economic security, including strengthening supply chains.
Securing supply chains has been a core tenet of Takaichi’s diplomacy. In her individual meetings with the leaders of Vietnam, Australia, the Republic of Korea, and the Philippines in May, Takaichi drew attention to the maintenance of supply chains while criticizing China for its export controls over critical minerals. Aspiring to strengthen her position on international economic security, Takaichi hoped to make up for her irregular comment on the Taiwan contingency last November, which deeply undermined Japan’s relations with China.
Takaichi and Starmer also confirmed acceleration of the development of next-generation fighter aircraft under the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) with the UK and Italy. This is supposedly the main reason that Takaichi chose to visit London and Rome before the G7 summit.
Takaichi has sought to expand Japan’s international trade in defense equipment, expecting it to contribute to her economic growth strategy. She promoted trade in or joint development of destroyers with the Philippines and Australia. GCAP is in the same context. She once said that “Strategic investments that enhance resilience against potential crises are the core focus of the Takaichi Cabinet’s growth strategy.”
This approach reverses Japan’s longstanding reluctance to trade in military equipment. “Even if some foreign exchange surplus could be earned, our nation has not stooped so low as to make money by exporting weapons,” former prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa said when he was foreign minister in 1976. Takaichi now argues that times have changed and that trade with other countries in defense equipment would contribute to the growth of the Japanese economy.
While Takaichi was travelling in Europe, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. and Iran had reached a deal for ending the war. Takaichi posted on X that she would welcome the agreement as a key step toward a settlement and hoped for free and safe traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. Takaichi must be wishing for the normalization of international trade. “Donald is the only person who can bring peace and prosperity across the world,” Takaichi said to Trump in her visit to the White House in March.
The Takaichi administration introduced a subsidy for gasoline as soon as the war in Iran started. To maintain public support for her cabinet, she formulated a supplemental budget to continue this subsidy earlier this month. A subsidy does not cure all ills, however. Opposition lawmakers have questioned Takaichi about oil import shortages that limit production of various goods that are indispensable for manufacturing and that cause prolonged price inflation.
That is why she is focusing her diplomatic efforts on securing the supply chain. It is expected that she would propose a joint stockpiling plan for critical minerals at the G7 summit meeting. Takaichi hopes to take the initiative to build a system in which like-minded countries can collaborate to strengthen supply chains. Her proposal would be a countermeasure to China’s coercive trade policy on critical minerals.
It is still unclear whether Takaichi’s initiative to secure the supply chain accelerates Plan B of Japan’s diplomacy, which is to move Japan away from excessive dependence upon the United States. It is true that Japan has been seeking alternatives in trade opportunities after Trump imposed additional tariffs in June 2025. The Iran war has proven that Japan cannot secure oil from the Middle East by relying on U.S. dominance in international security. Yet Japan’s national security is still fundamentally based its alliance with the U.S., as seen in efforts to grow the defense budget by current and former administrations.
Takaichi has yet to find an exit from Japan’s current diplomatic difficulties: the uncertainty of the Trump administration and the persistent diplomatic pressure from China. Although Takaichi stands by the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP), which was invented by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to expand Japan’s role in the region, it no longer holds much sway. In the current war-based world order, the creation of a democratic bloc of countries may not guarantee stability or prosperity. The FOIP policy may appeal to Japan’s conservative base, but Takaichi does not have a viable grand strategy to give Japan a greater role on the international stage.
Turning our eyes to domestic politics, Takaichi faces scandals of her own. Her secretary is thought to be involved in a defamatory social media campaign strategy in the presidential election of the Liberal Democratic Party last October. Although she has denied any misdeeds in her campaign, the opposition parties have demanded that the secretary testify before a Diet committee. Although it may not violate any law, a defamatory strategy could damage Takaichi politically because she depends on support from SNS users.
Her approval rating has suffered a gradual decline according to polls of news organizations because of the defamation scandal or the shortage of naphtha. As former prime ministers have done, Takaichi hopes to achieve diplomatic gains that will change the direction of domestic headwinds. However, it is unlikely that she can attain success in her visit to Europe to a degree that would lead to a resurgence in public support.
