PM Wong to make official visit to Japan from March 17 to 19

TOKYO - Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will make an official visit to Tokyo from March 17 to 19, in conjunction with the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Singapore and Japan.

In the Japanese capital, PM Wong will meet his counterpart Sanae Takaichi, said the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in a statement on March 16. Ms Takaichi became prime minister in October 2025, and was recently re-elected in February.

PM Wong will attend a guard-of-honour welcome ceremony and be hosted by Ms Takaichi to a working dinner, said the PMO.

He will also meet other senior Japanese political and business leaders, as well as overseas Singaporeans based in Japan at a reception.

The trip is part of a string of introductory visits that PM Wong has made to key partner countries in the region since taking on the role of head of government in May 2024.

He will be accompanied in Japan by Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Manpower Minister and Minister-in-charge of Energy and Science & Technology Tan See Leng, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs Sim Ann, Minister of State for Digital Development and Information and Health Rahayu Mahzam, and Minister of State for Defence Desmond Choo.

On March 15, Singapore and Japan inked an agreement to strengthen cooperation on energy, sustainability and climate change.

Dr Tan, who was in Tokyo and attended a high-level forum on energy security on the same day, signed the pact with Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Mr Ryosei Akazawa.

The agreement will see both countries collaborate more deeply on cross-border electricity imports, and low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia. They will also work together in areas such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage, as well as civil nuclear energy, liquefied natural gas and advanced grid system enablers.

PM Wong’s visit was earlier announced by Ms Sim at a Business China event on March 6, where she also noted that he had visited China and South Korea in 2025. Later in March, PM Wong is slated to visit China to attend the Boao Forum for Asia, a yearly high-level conference held in Hainan province.

Ms Sim said on March 6 that the Republic looks forward to further collaboration with Japan in areas such as the digital economy, the green transition and security.

Her wide-ranging speech at that event also covered Singapore’s efforts to deepen its relationships with China, South Korea and Japan amid a fragmenting global order.

Singapore welcomes a bigger role for Japan in contributing to peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region, which is possible if the nation comes to terms with its past and addresses outstanding historical issues, she said then.

These historical issues, stemming from the damage and suffering caused during World War II, continue to affect parts of Asia and must be handled sensitively, she added, underlining the longstanding view expressed by Singapore’s leaders that continued efforts at reconciliation are needed to strengthen regional trust.

Noting that the relationship between both countries has matured significantly over the decades, Ms Sim said Singapore is now ready to enter a new chapter in its relations with Japan.

The two countries share robust economic ties.

Japan was Singapore’s eighth-largest trading partner in 2025, while Singapore was Japan’s 14th-largest. Singapore is also Japan’s largest investment destination in Asia, with more than 5,300 Japanese-registered companies in Singapore as at end-December 2025.

Each country also continues to be a tourism destination of choice for the other’s people.

In 2025, there were over 620,000 visitors from Japan to Singapore, and 720,000 visitors from Singapore to Japan.

While PM Wong is in Japan, Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong will be Acting Prime Minister.