Australia–Japan relations a lighting trip to Tokyo and started to develop a close relationship with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, following his predecessor's example. Abe later visited Turnbull in Sydney early 2017 during a pivot to South-East Asia, where both increased military, trade, cultural, and sporting ties. Both also discussed the South China Sea Crisis, North Korea, and their anxiety to co-operate with their mutual ally, the United States' new Trump Administration. Australian trade had shifted away from other Commonwealth countries toward Asia around the 1960s and 1970s. Japan in particular had emerged as the leading trading partner. In 1966–67, Japan surpassed the
Tomoko Abe Tomoko Abe Abe is also a leader of a group of lawmakers called Energy Shift Japan, who are pushing the government to consider alternatives to nuclear power subsequent to the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in March 2011. Abe and Energy Shift Japan are backing a proposal to give green energy sources access to Japan's power grid. She quit the SDP shortly before the 2012 general election and joined the TPJ, founded by governor of Shiga Prefecture Yukiko Kada. The party performed poorly in the election and all the remaining diet members save Abe quit the party, meaning that the