Japan and Germany vowed to deepen cooperation on defense and climate protection and work more closely together to reduce one-sided dependencies in critical areas such as raw materials.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Saturday hosted Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Tokyo for their first bilateral government consultations which included a joint Cabinet meeting and bilateral talks between key ministers for defense, economy, finance, transportation and foreign affairs.
"The international community is facing a time of great change and Japan and Germany need to cooperate even more closely than before to maintain and strengthen the free and open global order based on the rule of law,” Kishida told reporters after the meeting.