Yoko Kamikawa

Japan's leadership race kicked off on Thursday with a record nine candidates, including the surfing son of a former prime minister and an arch-nationalist, vying to be the first woman premier.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (R) speaks as India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar (L), Japan's Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa (2nd-L) and Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong (2nd-R) listen during a joint press conference at Iikura Guest House in Tokyo on July 29, 2024

BELGRADE - Serbian FM Marko Djuric met with Japanese FM Yoko Kamikawa in Belgrade on Thursday.

The parties agreed on the start of talks on an agreement on investments that would create an exceptional opportunity to strengthen economic ties with Japan and lend an impetus to development of the Serbian economy.

BELGRADE - Serbian PM Milos Vucevic received Japanese FM Yoko Kamikawa in Belgrade on Thursday.

Philippine military chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., left, shakes hands with Japan Self-Defense Force Chief of Staff General Yoshihide Yoshida as they arrive before meetings with Philippine and Japan Foreign and Defense Ministers at a hotel in Taguig, Philippines, Monday, July 8, 2024.

BELGRADE - Serbian FM Marko Djuric met with Japanese Ambassador to Belgrade Akira Imamura on Thursday, noting that Serbia and Japan had marked the 140th anniversary of their friendship in 2022 and that the long tradition of bilateral relations lent an impetus to further expansion of cooperation between the two countries.

The Philippine's military chief said Thursday he hoped a key defense pact with Japan allowing for the deployment of troops on each other's territory will be signed at security talks next week.

Japanese Defence Minister Minoru Kihara and Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa are set to meet with their Philippine counterparts in Manila on Monday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, centre, is surrounded by Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron, left, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa , high, Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani as they attend an Indo-Pacific meeting on the sidelines of the G7 Foreign Ministers meeting on Capri Island, Italy, Friday, April 19, 2024.

Japan is preparing to resume funding to the U.N.'s crisis-hit Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, the government said.

Once the sixth-largest contributor to the agency, Japan joined more than a dozen countries in pausing funding after Israel claimed that 12 of UNRWA's 13,000 Gaza employees were involved in the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa visited Ukraine on Sunday to meet with her counterpart Dmytro Kuleba to show Tokyo's continued support, a ministry official said.

The unannounced visit was a change to her original two-week tour plan of visiting Poland, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, Germany and Türkiye from Friday.