Prime Minister Mark Carney has touched down in Tokyo for a quick 24-hour visit to connect with his recently elected Japanese counterpart and shore up relations with a major Indo-Pacific partner.
This visit to Japan, the last of Carney’s swing through the region after visits to India and Australia, will include a one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and some sort of signing ceremony on further cooperation before, like past stops on this trip, he takes a series of private meetings that are closed to the press.
Carney is the first world leader to visit with Takaichi since she won a landslide victory in the country’s February election. The visit also coincides with Takaichi’s 65th birthday — and he is bringing her a cake loaded with Canadian ingredients, including maple syrup, for dessert at a dinner later Friday night.
Still, like much of this 10-day tour, the program is mostly all business as Carney drives for new deals from old partners.
As U.S.-based automakers pull back from vehicle assembly in Canada amid pressure from President Donald Trump to bolster American manufacturing, Japanese companies like Honda and Toyota have become increasingly relevant players for the future of the sector.
Those firms are now responsible for 77 per cent of all light vehicles produced in Canada as of early 2026, marking a significant rise from 44 per cent in 2016, according to the Trillium Network for Advanced Manufacturing, a non-profit think-tank at Western University.
While in Japan’s business hub, Carney will make a play for even more investment by those firms in Canada to replace what’s been lost by the departing Americans.
Japan was watching China trip closely
One topic of discussion while Carney’s here could be his recent deal with China to allow some 50,000 Chinese-made EVs into the Canadian market in exchange for tariff relief on some farm and seafood products.
On the surface this deal has nothing to do with Japan but this visit could be, in part, about reassuring leaders in Tokyo that the agreement with China is a narrow deal on certain sectors and not about supplanting its relationship with Japan, historically Canada’s strongest East Asian ally, said Vina Nadjibulla, the vice-president of research and strategy at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
“I think Japan was watching the China trip with a little bit more trepidation than our other allies would,” she said. “Japan is a big investor in the Canadian auto sector. Inviting Chinese investments — that will have implications for the Japanese,” she said.
China and Japan don’t get along and there’s been some recent tension.
“So much of our focus has been, of course, on President Trump and his economic coercion. But Japan is still dealing with a very difficult situation with China. I think, for Canada, we need to show democratic solidarity and we need to have some frank conversations with them about our Indo-Pacific strategy and how it’s evolving,” Nadjibulla said.
WATCH | Carney hails ‘landmark’ China trade deal, but not everyone’s happy :
Carney hails ‘landmark’ China trade deal, but not everyone’s happy
Prime Minister Mark Carney is hailing a ‘trademark’ new China trade deal that reduces tariffs on Canadian canola and other products in exchange for slashing tariffs on Chinese EVs. Ontario Premier Doug Ford calls the deal terrible for Ontario’s auto sector.
Asked about possible Japanese concerns over Sino-Canadian relations at a pre-departure background briefing with reporters, a senior government social said the Chinese EV deal has “nothing in there that should cause concern to Japan.”
Indeed, there is no visible sign of tension between Canada and Japan. The two recently signed a memorandum allowing for intelligence sharing on defence procurement matters to make it easier to buy each other’s military equipment. This visit is expected to produce further agreements, officials said.
‘Leaders need to get to know each other’
Sen. Peter Boehm, a former top diplomat who now chairs the Red Chamber’s foreign affairs and international trade committee, said this quick trip to Japan is about getting face time with a new G7 leader. The next time they speak by phone or meet in person at a summit there will be some familiarity.
“Japan is very important partner for us. It’s one of the larger economies in the world. It’s the third or fourth largest depending on the day,” he said. “The leaders need to get to know each other.”
That’s how Nadjibulla sees a trip like this too — it’s about paying respect to a fellow G7 leader and acknowledging how important this partnership really is for Canada.
“It’s a relationship that is so stable and so positive and that it’s at risk of being neglected and I think we can’t afford to do that,” she said.
With the Canada-U.S. relationship on shaky ground, Carney has made it his top priority to broker deals with other countries to diversify trade and shore up the economy.
Other stops on this tour have produced some quantifiable results: about $5 billion worth of commercial deals with India on everything from uranium to pharmaceuticals and beauty products — plus a commitment to sign a free trade deal by year’s end — and a series of agreements with Australia on issues like critical minerals development and defence.
Carney was also on hand as IFM Investors, a major Australian pension fund or “super” as they’re called Down Under, also pledged this week in Sydney to invest up to $10 billion in Canada over the next decade.
It also signalled it wants to take ownership stakes in the country’s airports and possibly major roads, if they are ever privatized. “We’re looking at very large opportunities,” Kyle Mangini, IFM’s global head of infrastructure, said this week.
WATCH | Carney pitches Canada-Australia ‘middle power’ team-up :
Carney pitches Canada-Australia ‘middle power’ team-up
Citing global instability, Prime Minister Mark Carney called for closer co-operation between ‘middle powers’ Canada and Australia on defence, critical minerals and artificial intelligence during his visit to the fellow Commonwealth country.
Canadian and Australian pension funds, which are among the most well-capitalized in the world and flush with cash, jointly agreed to cooperate on investment deals and pool money to buy assets as part of an effort to draw the two Commonwealth countries closer together not only in politics but in business.
Carney has developed a strong rapport with Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
Albanese came to Canberra’s airport early Friday morning to see Carney off as he left for Japan, a sign, Canadian officials said, of the warmth between the two men. For Albanese’s birthday earlier this week, Carney brought him Blue Rodeo vinyl records and dog treats for his beloved pet, Toto.
There’s a hope that rapport will lead to even more Canada-Australia deals and further integration in the months to come as they jointly grapple with over-reliance on big markets — or as Carney calls them, “hegemons” — like China and the U.S.
