U.S.-Japan Caucus visited Japan for five days as an official representative of the United States and the U.S.-Japan Caucus. While there, he met with various officials within the Japanese Government, including, Shinzo Abe (The Prime Minister of Japan), Caroline Kennedy (the then-U.S. Ambassador to Japan), Yoichi Miyazawa (Then Japanese Miniser of Economy, Trade, and Industry), as well as the members of the Japanese-US Parliamentary Friendship League (the Japanese counterpart of the U.S.-Japan Caucus). On January 12, 2016, the U.S.-Japan Caucus came out in support of a historic agreement between Japan and South Korea surrounding the controversial issue of Japanese Comfort Women. The
Shinzō Abe Communist and Social Democratic parties walked out of the vote in protest at what they said was the government's move to force the bills through without sufficient debate and ignore "responsible opposition parties". Abe countered by arguing that the bills had been debated for "as many as 113 hours" before the vote. While common practice in many other parliamentary democracies, a government using its majority to "railroad" controversial bills though the Diet in the face of political and public opposition is a subject of criticism in Japan. As a result of these moves, Abe faced a public backlash, and opinion