French President Emmanuel Macron is planning an official visit to Japan in early April, a French government official said on Friday. The trip aims to reaffirm cooperation with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi ahead of the Group of Seven summit hosted by France in June.
French President Emmanuel Macron is planning to make an official visit to Japan in early April, a French government official said on Friday. The trip is intended to reaffirm cooperation with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi ahead of the Group of Seven summit to be hosted by France in June. Macron also hopes to strengthen economic ties between France and Japan in the fields of artificial intelligence, nuclear power, and aviation and space.
If the visit takes place, it will be his first trip to Japan since 2023, when he attended a G7 summit in Hiroshima. Among other G7 leaders in Europe, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer both visited Tokyo in January.
According to the source, Macron is expected to stay in Japan for two or three days. The French president's office plans to make an announcement once the visit plan is decided.
In November last year, Takaichi met with Macron during a Group of 20 summit in South Africa. "I am looking forward to going to Evian," she told him, referring to Evian-les-Bains, the venue of the G7 summit in eastern France.
The planned visit underscores efforts to bolster France-Japan relations, particularly in preparation for upcoming international summits.
