Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida asserted in an address to a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday that his country stands with the U.S. at a time when history is at a turning point.
Kishida said the U.S. held a certain reputation decades ago that “shaped the international order” and “championed freedom and democracy.”
“You believed that freedom is the oxygen of humanity,” he said. “The world needs the United States to continue playing this pivotal role in the affairs of nations. And yet, as we meet here today, I detect an undercurrent of self-doubt among some Americans about what your role in the world should be.”
Kishida said that this is happening when the world is “at history’s turning point” as “freedom and democracy are currently under threat around the globe,” climate change is causing natural disasters, and technology such as artificial intelligence is advancing.
Japan is facing “an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge” from China,” the prime minister said. He also spoke about the threats from North Korea and from Russia in Ukraine.