Shigeo Yamada, Japan’s ambassador to the United States, said the two nation’s relationship is stronger than ever during a visit to Charlotte today.
Yamada was a keynote speaker at the 46th Annual Southeast U.S./Japan Conference, which has attracted more than 500 people from seven Southern states and the Asian nation. North Carolina was among the founders of the association in 1976 with a mission of expanding trade and friendship between Japan and its member states.
Events like the conference lead to close personal relationships that are essential during difficult periods, Yamada said. He noted that Japan, the U.S. and other free-market nations that try to abide by international laws are “facing serious challenges from those with different principles and values than us.”
Japan is stepping up by providing more financial support for Ukraine in its war with Russia than any other non-NATO nation, the ambassador said. It also is doubling its defense appropriations over a five-year period, reflecting its support for maintaining a positive world order.
Japan has been the largest direct foreign investor in the U.S. over the past five years and its companies employ more than 1 million people here, mostly in manufacturing jobs, Yamada said.
That investment includes Toyota Motors’ record $14 billion plan for its electric-battery factories in Randolph County, marking the largest corporate expansion in N.C. history. Production is slated to start next year.
Yamada is a veteran Japanese diplomat who has had two previous postings in the U.S. before he assumed his current post in December. In addition to working in Japan, he’s had roles in its embassies in London and Beijing. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Carleton College in Minnesota in 1989.
His visit came the day after Japanese voters delivered “a stunning blow” to the Liberal Democratic Party in a snap election, the BBC news service reported. The results showed that the LDP, which has led Japan almost consistently since 1955, lost its single-party majority in the nation’s lower house.
The voting followed a political corruption scandal that was disclosed last year, implicating senior party officials and cabinet members.
Yamada commented that both Japan and the U.S. are “opening a new chapter in political leadership” with next week’s American elections. “Whoever becomes the leader, the U.S. and Japan relationship will remain strong and will only grow stronger,” he said.