8 December 2025
Thank you – it’s an honour to be back at the Japan National Press Club. Thank you all for coming.
I am here proud of the progress we have made in the special strategic partnership between Australia and Japan.
Both governments are active in responding to a deteriorating security environment.
We are building a serious defence partnership, with growing interoperability, unprecedented defence industry cooperation and robust intelligence and information exchanges.
To give just some examples:
- Australia has selected the Mogami Class frigate for the Royal Australian Navy
- We have this year completed our first trilateral air force combat exercises with the United States in Japan
- Record numbers of Japanese personnel travelled to Australia for Exercise Talisman Sabre, which included the first live-fire of Japan’s Type-12 Surface to Ship Missile
- This year, the first Australian warship was repaired and maintained in Japan under our groundbreaking Reciprocal Access Agreement
- Across the defence agenda, we are training together at increased scale, tempo and complexity.
Yesterday, our defence ministers announced a new Framework for Strategic Defence Coordination to deepen our security cooperation.
We are also working together in cyber security, space cooperation and in strengthening the resilience of our supply chains – especially critical minerals.
We coordinate our positions on regional and global issues – with close and direct communication at all levels, including between ministers.
You have just seen a visit by Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister in advance of a visit to Washington.
You will soon see other senior visits by Australian minisiters to Japan.
And the most recent Australia-Japan 2+2 meeting in September sent a clear signal:
That Australia and Japan act as
a central pillar of coordination amongst like-minded countries with a steadfast commitment to working with the United States and other key partners, to uphold the international system, using all tools of statecraft to deter and prevent conflict, and to maintain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.
We have signed agreements to help each other’s citizens in times of need when an international crisis strikes.
Our trade and investment links are at record levels, with Australia being a critical energy and food security partner for Japan.
Australia supplies about 40 per cent of Japan’s LNG and 65 per cent of Japan’s coal.
Australian iron ore has gone into the billions of tonnes of steel that undergird Japan’s cities.
Our energy keeps powering your economy to this day.
And Australia’s abundant renewable resources, combined with Japanese capital, technology and offtake will help create new markets in clean fuels and green metals.
Australia reliably supplies red meat, wheat, sugar and cheese to Japan’s market, most of it for further processing.
About 12 per cent of the calories consumed in Japan are supplied by Australia.
And we enjoy new and growing synergies across our economies: from banking to data centres to urban infrastructure.
From quantum computing and medical sciences to information security.
Corporate Japan sees opportunity in Australia because of our growing population, openness to foreign capital and independent legal system.
According to Herbert Smith Freehills, a law firm, Japanese foreign direct investment into Australia reached yet another record high of $141.1 billion in 2024 representing 11.95% of all FDI into Australia.
Japan ranked third in terms of cumulative FDI into Australia, and Japan remains the only foreign investor to have increased its FDI into Australia in every single year over the past 11 years.
Australia accounted for 8.3% of all Japanese FDI.
And there have been some striking recent investments by Japanese firms in Australia:
- Mitsui’s JPY500 billion (A$8 billion) Rhodes Ridge iron ore project
- Renesas’ JPY937 billion (A$9.1 billion) acquisition of Australian semiconductor design company Altium
- last month, Samty invested JPY64 billion (A$600 million) in Australian real estate company UniLodge – one of many recent Japanese investments into Australian real estate.
Australian investors also see value being unlocked in Japan’s massive economy with unprecedented levels of interest, including from Australia’s pension funds.
In critical minerals, we see our relationship of trust delivering economic security dividends.
The story of Lynas – beginning in 2011 – is a compelling illustration.
Combining Australia’s rare earth resources and mining expertise with Japan’s technology and investment – and working with partners in Malaysia – we helped to diversify Japan’s supply of light rare earths.
This was not a one-off.
In October this year, Japan received its first shipment of heavy rare earths from Lynas – the first heavy rare earth supply chain outside China.
Gallium, fluorite and zirconium are next, with a number of joint projects in Australia moving toward production.
At the same time as our economic and security ties deepen, we have record numbers of Australians travelling to Japan.
This keeps the embassy busy – and we anticipate more work ahead because Japan is an amazing destination –one that is safe and welcoming.
Japanese travellers to Australia are also growing in number, since Covid-19 Australia has a higher share of Japan’s outbound travel market.
Indeed, Australia is now the number one destination for Japanese high school study tours abroad.
This level of local interest in Australia could be seen at the Osaka/Kansai World Expo where our pavilion welcomed over three million visitors, perhaps ninety per cent of them from Japan.
I want to offer again my congratulations to Japan for hosting such a spectacular and successful event.
Next year we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of our Basic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation.
That agreement shows our partnership is based on interdependence and trust – and has been for decades.
Now, we are building a partnership of even greater substance, especially in defence and security.
We want to be a model partner in Japan’s defence and security transformation as well as your energy transition.
This is important because for Australia a strong and secure Japan is a vital interest.
We need an effective partnership with Japan to maintain strategic balance, to secure supply chains, to deter conflict and to solve some of our respective national challenges.
We have long welcomed Japan’s positive contributions to regional and global peace and stability.
And that is not just a government view.
Reliable and consistent opinion polling in Australia shows Australians trust Japan.
Australia and Japan are each building our national power through enhanced defence, diplomatic and cyber capabilities.
And we are promoting rules and international law not only to defend and deter but also as ways to promote cooperation and persuade.
We support development and connectivity in Asia and in the Pacific, as seen by our work to fund undersea cables in the Pacific, connecting our partners securely to the global economy.
To adapt a phrase from Australia’s Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, Australia and Japan don’t just live in the Indo-Pacific, we aren’t just residents, we are architects of an open and stable region.
Together we have a legacy of achievement from the establishment of APEC, the expansion of the CPTPP to, in years past, the Cambodian Peace Process.
In these and in many other ways, when we work together, we don’t just help ourselves, we make the Indo-Pacific a better and safer place.
Our growing cooperation will continue to have that effect.
So, we have much on which to build.
Our world is changing fast.
Much is in flux.
Nothing is guaranteed.
Peace and stability can’t be assumed.
Open economic settings are under challenge.
In this moment, our nations, Australia and Japan are acting with purpose and energy to protect shared interests.
In my work in Japan with business, universities and government – in my travels across this amazing country – and in all of my engagements, I have been struck by the ingenuity, dedication and resilience of Japan’s people.
I am pleased to have made my own contribution to this partnership which makes Japan, as well as Australia, stronger and more prosperous.
I look forward to taking your questions.
Thank you.