November 3, 2025
TOKYO – Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has successfully made her diplomatic debut, holding summits with the leaders of the United States, China and South Korea within just 12 days of taking office.
Takaichi returned from South Korea on Saturday after attending the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. She made her presence felt on the diplomatic stage, partly by leveraging her position as Japan’s first female prime minister.
“I managed to steadily take steps to broaden the horizons of Japanese diplomacy,” Takaichi said with a satisfied expression at a news conference in Gyeongju, South Korea, on Saturday.
Four days after taking office on Oct. 21, Takaichi traveled to Malaysia to attend a summit related to the Association of South East Asian Nations and held meetings with the leaders of Australia and the Philippines, with which Japan is boosting security cooperation.
Takaichi particularly stressed the significance of her meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday. She rarely dined with other lawmakers, prompting a veteran Liberal Democratic Party member to say she is not very sociable. However, a close aide said Takaichi was determined to get close to Trump and succeeded in doing so.
According to a senior government official, Takaichi looked nervous at the start of the meeting but managed to enliven the conversation with topics related to former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was an ally to both her and Trump. When Takaichi and Trump visited the U.S. Naval Base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, they called each other by their first names, Sanae and Donald.
After returning home, Trump said in a social media post, “I am more confident than ever that the friendship between the United States and Japan is strong.”
Some in China and South Korea had expressed caution regarding Takaichi’s conservative political stance. But Chinese President Xi Jinping’s expression softened when Takaichi greeted him with a smile in the waiting room of the APEC summit ahead of their bilateral meeting on Friday.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung strongly praised Takaichi’s realistic stance. In a news conference on Saturday, he said Takaichi’s actions “will be and should be” different as the prime minister than when she was a politician. “I am no longer worried,” he said.
South Korean media outlets also favorably reported that Takaichi bowed to the South Korean national flag at the summit.
At the APEC meetings, she drew attention as a female prime minister and proactively greeted the leaders of individual countries. A source who accompanied the prime minister said her approach was in contrast to that of former Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
“A series of occasions allowed the prime minister to complete important and difficult talks all at once,” said a senior Foreign Ministry official. “It’s worth almost a year of diplomatic achievements.”
However, pending issues with other countries still remain.
Japan pledged in its tariff agreement with the United States to make investments worth $550 billion in the country, but its roadmap for that remains uncertain. In addition, Chinese government vessels continue intruding into Japan’s territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture.
“I would like to use a series of meetings as the chance to tackle various issues,” Takaichi said at the news conference. The prime minister’s diplomatic skills will be tested in how she will manage to reduce pending issues and secure tangible benefits.