Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has sent a congratulatory message to new British leader Keir Starmer, who took office on Friday following his Labour Party's landslide general election victory.
In the message, Kishida expressed his hope to step up cooperation between Japan and Britain to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific region and to maintain and strengthen a free and open international order based on the rule of law, according to the Foreign Ministry.
The Labor government, the first in 14 years, is widely expected to work to strengthen bilateral ties with Japan, as the previous Conservative government did under its emphasis on the Indo-Pacific region.
Meanwhile, the change of government in Britain following Thursday's general election "gives us courage," said Kenta Izumi, leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, at a news conference on Friday. Both the CDP and the Labor Party are supported by labor unions.
"Frustration with the government had accumulated a lot (in Britain), and Japan is seeing a similar situation," Izumi said, referring to public criticism of the Kishida administration's response to inflation and a slush fund scandal involving Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
"We aim to achieve a change of government" in the next general election in Japan, the CDP leader noted.
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