There’s an important meeting in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s diary.

On Monday, Japan’s first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, will touch down in Australia for high‑level talks with the Albanese government, following Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s trip to Tokyo to shore up fuel and fertiliser supplies.

So, are friends in need friends indeed? Australia wants fuel from our friends in the north, but what will Japan’s new prime minister want in return?

Takaichi has been called the world’s most powerful woman. So, how will Anthony Albanese approach the meeting? And as Japan bolsters its defences against China, does Tokyo expect Australia to do the same?

Guest: Professor Shiro Armstrong, Director of the Australia‑Japan Research Centre and the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research, and Editor of the East Asia Forum at the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy.

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