To better address China's expanding influence and worries about global security, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Saturday convened the first round of government meetings in Tokyo. They also decided to improve their economic and defence relations.

In order to "counter economic coercion, state-led attempts to illegally acquire technology, and nonmarket practises," Kishida stated at a joint news conference held after the talks that the parties had agreed to strengthen supply chains in minerals, semiconductors, batteries, and other strategic areas. He was ostensibly referring to China.

As industrialised nations with similar core principles, Germany and Japan must exercise global leadership to make their societies more resilient, according to Kishida.

Scholz brought six of the 17 members of the Cabinet—the ministers of the economy, finance, foreign policy, interior, transportation, and defense—for meetings with their Japanese counterparts. They talked on the Indo-Pacific region's advancing economic and national security cooperation, as well as China's aggressiveness in advancing its maritime territorial claims and its tighter ties with Russia.

A comparable "government consultations" mechanism exists between Germany and a number of other nations.

According to Kishida, the two presidents in Tokyo once more denounced Russia's aggression against Ukraine and decided to maintain heavy sanctions against Moscow and fervent backing for Ukraine.