Japan’s new defence minister Nobuo Kishi plans US trip, with Aegis on the agenda

Kishi has reiterated the importance of Tokyo’s security alliance with Washington amid an ‘increasingly harsh national security environment’

But analysts say he has limited experience in government and his initial exchanges with his American counterpart Mark Esper are likely to be limited in scope

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Japan‘s defence minister, Nobuo Kishi, receives a guard of honour during a ceremony in Tokyo a day after he took up the post. Photo: Kyodo

Published: 7:30pm, 29 Sep 2020Updated: 8:01pm, 29 Sep 2020

Japan’s defence minister Nobuo Kishi has reiterated the importance of Tokyo’s alliance with Washington during the current “increasingly harsh national security environment”, saying that he will travel to the United States, potentially in October, for talks about the deployment of a ballistic missile defence shield.

Kishi, appointed on September 16, has in his early exchanges with the media come across as an aggressive advocate of the controversial Aegis Ashore anti-missile system and other issues that are at the core of Japan’s six-decade security pact with the US.

Analysts point out, however, that he has limited experience in government and his initial discussions with US defence secretary Mark Esper are likely to be limited in scope.

“Kishi is not particularly well known in Japanese politics, we do not know his attitude on many policies – and the general belief is that he was appointed as minister because his brother is [former prime minister] Shinzo Abe,” said Hiromi Murakami, a professor of political science at the Tokyo campus of Temple University.

“When he does go to the US, it is not clear how much he will be able to do to address the core issues, so it’s very possible that this first meeting may be more of a getting-to-know-you opportunity.”

An Aegis Ashore missile-defence system in Hawaii. Photo: Kyodo

Garren Mulloy, a professor of international relations at Daito Bunka University and an authority on regional security issues, said the first meeting between Kishi and Esper was likely to result in positive public commitments about the countries’ future relationship.

“I would think that the Japanese side would like this first meeting to be quite bland and the priority would be for it to go off without a hitch because Kishi is really quite inexperienced,” he said. “Meetings between the two defence ministers are obviously regular occurrences, but what is significant this time is that the security relationship is in a strange place at the moment [with the upcoming US presidential election and the recent change of administration in Tokyo].”