Biden welcomes Japan's prime minister in show of unity to China

President Biden will also host Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos at a crucial time in U.S.-China relations.

President Joe Biden is welcoming Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to the White House on Wednesday for an official visit and state dinner. The leaders want to showcase the partnership between the United States and Japan as concerns over China come to the forefront before a trilateral summit with the Philippines on Thursday.

U.S. officials view the visit as marking a new chapter in the alliance and more broadly as an affirmation of President Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy.

“In the last 60 years, you would define this relationship between the United States and Japan, since it got formalized in 1960, as one of alliance protection. I think this state visit kind of ends that era and defines the next period of time,” a senior administration official said.

The visit signals the importance of the Indo-Pacific strategy, marking official visits with India, South Korea, Australia and now Japan under the Biden administration.

“What I really think is happening here is the president's theory of the case for his Indo-Pacific strategy is being borne out. When he came into office, the president theorized that if we invested in our alliances and our partnerships, those allies would step up alongside us so we could do much more together collectively in the Indo-Pacific, which would in turn leave us much more strongly positioned,” said Mira Rapp-Hooper, special assistant to the president and National Security Council senior director for East Asia and Oceania.