Politics & Government

U.S. House Speaker Pelosi Arrives in Japan

AP
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi walks on her arrival at the U.S. Yokota Air Base, in Fussa on the outskirts of Tokyo, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022.

Jiji Press

9:09 JST, August 5, 2022

Tokyo (Jiji Press)—U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is on a tour of Asia, arrived at the U.S. military’s Yokota base in western Tokyo late on Thursday.

On Friday, she is scheduled to hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Hiroyuki Hosoda, speaker of Japan’s House of Representatives, respectively, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Before meeting Hosoda, Pelosi is likely to visit a plenary meeting of the lower chamber, Jiji Press learned Thursday.

At the plenary meeting, Hosoda will read a message of condolence for the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was shot to death during an election campaign speech in the western city of Nara on July 8.

Pelosi became the first U.S. House speaker to set foot in Taiwan in 25 years. On Wednesday, she had talks with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.

Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan sparked a fierce backlash from China, which launched ballistic missiles toward the ocean near Taiwan.

Ahead of her visit to Japan, Pelosi visited South Korea.