8 July, 2014 11:36AM AEST

Shinzo Abe visit: why Australia matters to Japan

An insight into the Australian and Japanese relationship as the Prime Minister of Japan visits Canberra

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Prime Minister Tony Abbott described Japan as Australia's best friend in Asia on a recent trip overseas despite the focus being on China in recent years.

Now Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe is visiting Australia. The trip includes an historic address to Parliament and a Free Trade Agreement.

Shiro Armstrong, co-director of the Australia - Japan Research Centre and a fellow at the Crawford School at the Australian National University explained the current status of the relationship with Japan to Genevieve Jacobs.

In light of Prime Minister Abbott's comments Mr. Armstrong said that, while the China relationship is very important, the Japanese one is significant as it is Australia's second largest economic partner.

He went on to say that Australia is the largest supplier of iron ore, coal and liquefied natural gas to Japan.

"It's a fairly significant visit. It's the first bilateral visit since 2002 and it's the first time that a Japanese Prime Minister has been in Australia since 2007 when Abe himself came here for APEC in Sydney. That was his first time as Prime Minister and it is significant that he is here.

"I think it sends a pretty strong signal from his Government trying to strengthen relations around the region. He has just been in New Zealand and he heads to Papua New Guinea [after Australia] and you can see the importance of these countries in being strong suppliers of raw materials to Japan so there's that element and there's active diplomacy," Mr Armstrong told Genevieve.

A free trade agreement is also part of the visit which Mr. Armstrong said it "is important to get done", so that the broader relationship can be focused on including defence issues.

Defence Diplomacy

Prime Minister Abe, a strong nationalist, has lifted the 70 year ban on Japanese troops fighting alongside allies overseas. This has not been received well within Japan or overseas.

Mr. Armstrong explained that it is a reinterpretation of the constitution, which is a pacifist constitution, and the interpretation is still very limiting.

"It still has to be legislated. There will be significant limits and constraints on what the Japanese Defence Force can do in their collective self defence and so I think the context is what some people were worried about because of bad relations with South Korea and China currently".

Mr Armstrong added that deepening co-operation with Japan on all fronts is important, in particularly co-operation in defence and defence technology, but how it is done is more import.

"We want to be sending the right signals to our other partners in the region, importantly China, and we don't want to be doing this in a way that threatens".

The ongoing tensions with Japan and China are being managed, he said, and despite flare ups such as tensions over the East China Sea, they continue to have a strong economic relationship.

Mr. Armstrong said that Australia can manage the "economic and political relations in the region and not to prioritise one relationship over another but to recognise the importance of both relationships and to really think about a broader framework in the region for managing the relationship, not just bilateral and bilateral agreements".