TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz agreed Wednesday to strengthen critical mineral supply chains, amid shared economic security concerns over China, and set up a high-level dialogue framework on artificial intelligence.
The two leaders will also promote cooperation between their countries' defense industries, Takaichi told a joint press announcement after their meeting in Tokyo, in response to the increasingly deteriorating global security environment.
The two governments will also advance private-sector cooperation in cutting-edge technologies such as nuclear fusion and hydrogen, Takaichi said.
"We agreed to further strengthen our strategic cooperation across a wide range of fields," she added. "Japan and Germany share strengths that complement each other and are important like-minded partners in upholding a free, open and fair international economic order based on the rule of law."
Takaichi and Merz reaffirmed the relationship between Japan and Germany as "Premium Partners." Merz is making his first visit to Japan since taking office in May 2025.
Meanwhile, Takaichi expressed "strong concern" over a proposed European Union scheme favoring electric vehicles made within the bloc, according to the Japanese government. Germany and France agreed earlier this month to exclude Japanese-made EVs from the proposed preferential treatment.
In three joint statements issued following the talks, the two leaders pledged to strengthen deterrence in cyberspace in the wake of a series of data breaches.
Tokyo is seeking to boost cooperation with other nations on critical minerals, including rare earths, as it faces tighter Chinese export restrictions, apparently in retaliation for Takaichi's remarks last year on Taiwan, a self-ruled island claimed by China.
China dominates the global supply of rare earths, which are needed to manufacture high-tech products ranging from EVs and semiconductors to defense equipment.
Japan and Germany, the world's fourth- and third-largest economies, share an interest in reducing reliance on China for rare earth supplies, as Berlin has grown increasingly wary of Beijing's expanding economic influence.
In the statements, Japan and Germany expressed "grave concerns on the increasing use of economic coercion, such as arbitrary export restrictions and retaliatory measures on critical minerals," without naming China.
They also said they will work together to ensure that "attempts to weaponize economic dependencies fail."
On the security front, Japan has been strengthening defense collaboration with Germany, as well as other European countries, given China's military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine since 2022.
With the Japanese government planning to update its three key security policy documents later this year and put the large-scale deployment of unmanned systems at its core, closer defense industrial cooperation with like-minded partners, especially on drones, has taken on added importance.
Germany has recently emerged as a possible participant in the trilateral Global Combat Air Program involving Japan, Britain and Italy to develop a next-generation fighter jet by 2035.
At the press event, Merz said Germany is willing to cooperate with Japan on fighter jet development, signaling interest in the GCAP project, while Takaichi made no mention of the matter.
Merz is on a three-nation tour of Asia that also includes Singapore and South Korea and is being accompanied by senior German business executives.
