Starmer looks to woo Japanese investors amid Asia trip backlash
Keir Starmer said he would hold discussions with investors and business owners in Japan after landing in Tokyo, with the Prime Minister hoping to defy critics of his recent trip to China with new deals to boost the UK economy.
Speaking on a plane from Shanghai to Tokyo, Starmer said discussions with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who is facing an imminent election in Japan, were “really important”.
Joined by dozens of business delegates and British cultural representatives, Starmer is hoping to secure further security guarantees and new business deals with Japan.
He told reporters: “Outside of Europe and the US, Japan is the biggest investor into our economy and there’s 1,000 Japanese businesses supporting, I think, 150,000 jobs in the UK. So, there’s a lot for us to discuss.”
He also said the Japanese government had supported the UK’s efforts to create a peacekeeping force in Ukraine should a ceasefire with Russia be struck.
His visit to Tokyo this weekend will conclude a trip to Asia in which he spent four days in China, which attracted criticism from activsits and opposition parties.
After meetings with China’s President Xi Jinping, it was announced that Chinese sanctions on UK parliamentarians would be lifted, some tariffs on whisky would be reduced and visa-free travel for British citizens to the country would be introduced.
UK-based companies also struck a number of deals with China after the visit.
Astrazeneca announced a new £11bn investment package in the country for research while Greg Jackson’s Octopus Energy will begin supplying energy to Chinese citizens under a partnership with the state-back utility company PCG Power.
But Starmer has faced intense pressure over the government’s approach to China after months of security alerts around cyber attacks and hacking, a collapsed spy case involving two researchers and the approval of the Chinese embassy near Canada.
He said Xi would be welcome to visit the UK next year when it hosts the G20 sumit, adding that it would be “foolhardy” not to engage with China, even after President Trump said building closer relations was “dangerous”.
Starmer criticised over China trip
His trip to China was only passed by Xi after Starmer gave the new “mega” embassy at the Royal Mint Court site, according to reports, prompting criticism from opposition parties.
The Liberal Democrats’ Daisy Cooper criticised Starmer for travelling “cap in hand” to the country.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the Prime Minister visited the country “from a position of weakness” in a post on X.
She was responding to a post by Shingo Yamagami, a former Japanese ambassador to Australia, which accused the Prime Minister of “weak and meek behaviour” due to his salutes to Chinese soldiers.
Badenoch said: “The analysis that his visit to China undermines deterrence,emboldens authoritarians and invites their adventurism is one I completely agree with.”