Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said Sunday that Tokyo was "determined" to support Ukraine as she visited Kyiv in her first foreign trip of 2024, almost two years into Russia's invasion.
"Japan is determined to support Ukraine so that peace can return to Ukraine," Kamikawa said during a press conference in a bomb shelter with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.
Kamikawa went to Bucha, near the capital Kyiv, where Russian forces are blamed for a 2022 massacre of civilians, as well as to Irpin, a past scene of heavy fighting.
The previously unannounced visit was a change to a two-week tour plan taking in Poland, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United States, Canada, Germany and Turkey from Friday.
Japan has joined several countries offering support for Ukraine since Russia's invasion, expanding sanctions against Moscow including export bans and asset freezes.
Kamikawa, who had been due to arrive from Poland, would "once again reiterate to the Ukrainian side that Japan's consistent policy of standing with and supporting Ukraine remains unchanged", a Japanese foreign ministry statement said.
She was to brief the Ukrainian side on the details of assistance projects Japan will offer to Kyiv, it said.
Japan plans to host a conference to promote Ukraine's economic reconstruction in Tokyo in February, with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal planning to attend.
Kamikawa was to consult with Ukrainian officials on details of the conference and attend "the handover ceremony of large-scale power-related equipment for winterisation assistance".
Kamikawa would also "demonstrate Japan's determination to uphold the international order based on the 'rule of law' from the perspective that unilateral changes to the status quo by force, such as Russia's aggression against Ukraine, cannot be accepted," the ministry said.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has repeatedly stressed the importance of rules-based international order as Tokyo is concerned about its own territorial disputes with its neighbours including an increasingly assertive China.
At the Group of Seven summit in Japan in May last year, the bloc's leaders agreed to "starve Russia of G7 technology, industrial equipment and services that support its war machine".
