Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa will hold talks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday in New York on the sidelines of the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders, the U.S. State Department said, with Kamikawa making her first overseas trip as top diplomat.
Kamikawa will also attend a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven industrialized nations the same day, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. She will chair the G-7 meeting, as Japan holds the group's rotating presidency this year.
During her meeting with Blinken, Kamikawa, who succeeded Yoshimasa Hayashi in a Cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday, is likely to affirm the nations' bilateral cooperation in dealing with Russia's invasion of Ukraine and North Korea's nuclear and missile development programs, among other issues.
In their first phone talks on Thursday following the Cabinet shakeup, Kamikawa told Blinken Japan will "fulfill its role as the chair of the G-7 to uphold and strengthen the free and open international order based on the rule of law," according to the Japanese ministry.
The two also agreed to cooperate in dealing with China and Russia's military aggression, while further strengthening the deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-U.S. alliance amid an increasingly severe regional security environment.
Kamikawa, a 70-year-old seventh-term House of Representatives member, has served as justice minister and gender equality minister in the past, but her experience on the international stage remains largely unknown.
After graduating from the University of Tokyo, Kamikawa joined a Japanese think tank and later earned a master's degree in public administration at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. She also has an experience of working as a policymaking staffer for a U.S. senator.
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