Carney to cap Indo-Pacific trip with Tokyo visit focused on trade, security

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Diana Fox Carney disembark a government plane as they arrive in Sydney, Australia, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is headed to Japan for a brief visit to one of Canada’s closest partner countries as he wraps up a trip across the Indo-Pacific.

“The trip is long overdue, given how significant Japan is as a partner for us in the region,” Asia Pacific Foundation vice-president Vina Nadjibulla said in a recent interview.

Japan is the last of the G7 countries Carney has visited since he took office almost a year ago.

Carney is set to arrive Friday in Tokyo, where he will meet with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and make statements to media.

There are no other announced events, though officials have said Carney will meet with business leaders to boost trade in sectors such as automotive, energy, critical minerals and agri-food.

Ottawa has said repeatedly that Japan is a major priority country for Canada, and polling shows it’s often the Asian country Canadians trust most, Nadjibulla said.

She said the two countries have “a full-spectrum partnership” with agreements signed or deepened in recent years that range from commercial investments and energy partnerships to critical minerals.

Global Affairs Canada says Japan is Canada’s fourth largest source of foreign direct investment and fifth largest bilateral trade partner in merchandise trade. Canada’s top exports include coal, gas, pork and copper, while top imports from Japan include cars, machinery and medical instruments.

Defence Minister David McGuinty is joining Carney in Tokyo. Canada is expanding its security ties with Japan in areas ranging from cybersecurity and law enforcement to military equipment and supplies.

“The relationship is in a really good place. But because of that, it’s easy to overlook it and to not give it the kind of attention that it deserves,” Nadjibulla said.

Last October, ahead of Carney’s travels to Asia, officials briefing reporters said he almost certainly would have visited Tokyo at that time, had Japan not been in the process of choosing a new leader.

Takaichi called a snap election in February and won a landslide victory amid a rightward shift in Japanese politics.

Analyses published by the Asia Pacific Foundation have described Takaichi as a “hard line conservative” who has a mandate to boost an economic security strategy to make Japan less reliant on countries like China for food, energy and critical minerals.

The think tank notes that Canada can deepen co-operation with Japan in critical minerals, advanced manufacturing and rules-based trade. But it notes that Tokyo’s hardening stance toward China could pose some challenges to that collaboration.

Beijing has retaliated already against comments Takaichi made last November suggesting a Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan.

Takaichi hasn’t backed down after four months of Chinese boycotts and her party has hinted it might seek to lift constitutional constraints on military activity.

Stephen Nagy, a Canadian who works as a politics professor at the International Christian University in Tokyo, said Japan is looking to Canada to help keep Washington engaged as a security partner in the region

In an opinion piece published Thursday by the Japan Times, he argued Canada can be “a core component of the economic and security architecture that deters aggression.”

To do so, Nagy argued, Carney should maintain a pragmatic approach to diplomacy that focuses more on issues like supply-chain resilience than on value-based policies such as feminist foreign aid.

Carney’s stop in Tokyo comes after visits to India and Australia. He is set to return to Canada on Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 5, 2026.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press