Will Takaichi visit Kyiv? Zelensky’s invite puts Japan PM in diplomatic bind

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s invitation for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to visit Kyiv has created a diplomatic dilemma for the Japanese leader, who is under pressure to show firmer support for Ukraine without further antagonising Russia.

Zelensky extended the invitation through Eisuke Mori, speaker of Japan’s House of Representatives, during his visit to the Ukrainian capital earlier this week.

Mori, who helped establish the cross-party Japan-Ukraine parliamentary friendship group in 1995, is widely regarded as one of Japan’s more experienced parliamentary voices on Ukraine and did not hold back during his visit.

In a speech to the Supreme Council in Kyiv on Tuesday, Mori condemned the Russian invasion as “a barbaric act that shakes the international order and the values that the international community has built over decades”.