Japan's lower house speaker Eisuke Mori plans inaugural visit to war-torn Ukraine
Eisuke Mori, speaker of Japan's House of Representatives, is set to travel to Ukraine, the first visit by a Japanese lower-house speaker since 2011 and the first by any top Japanese official since the 2022 invasion.
Eisuke Mori, who presides over Japan's lower house, will travel to Kyiv in the coming weeks, marking the first trip by a Japanese speaker since Takahiro Yokomichi visited in 2011 and the first by a senior Japanese official since Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's 2023 talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Mori, a longtime chair of the Japan-Ukraine parliamentary friendship group, has previously visited Ukraine in 2013, 2015 and 2019 and inspected the Chernobyl site.
He met Zelenskyy in 2019 when the Ukrainian president attended Emperor Naruhito's enthronement ceremony in Japan. During the upcoming visit, Mori is expected to convey Japan's steadfast solidarity, condemn Russia's attempts to alter the status quo by force, and pledge support for Kyiv's reconstruction. Given his background in nuclear policy, discussions may also address lessons from Chernobyl and the Fukushima Daiichi crisis. Earlier this month, Mori attended a G7 lower-house speakers' meeting in France and held talks with Ukrainian parliamentary chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk.
Why it matters
The trip signals Japan's continued diplomatic backing for Ukraine amid the ongoing war and highlights cooperation on nuclear safety and reconstruction.
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