It has been a busy few months of international contacts for Japan and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. After kicking off the new Reiwa Era with a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump in late May to meet new Emperor Naruhito, Japan hosted the Group of 20 meeting in Osaka at the end of June. It then announced a pending trade deal with the United States at the Group of Seven summit in France last week, which is to be concluded at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly meetings later this month in New York.
Upon his return, Abe opened the seventh annual Tokyo International Conference of African Development (TICAD), where he pledged to the assembled African leaders to go beyond development to further encourage Japanese investment across the continent, before meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in advance of another round of discussions with the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
Given the backdrop of strained U.S. relations with China, Iran, and even major European countries, each of these encounters required deft diplomacy, and Japan has come away with accomplishments it can be proud of.