Australia–Japan relations in 2013 with the new Abbott Government calling Japan Australia's "closest friend" in Asia, when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Australia to conclude the Japan–Australia Economic Partnership Agreement and to address the future of the relationship between Australia and Japan, being the first Japanese Prime Minister to address the Parliament of Australia. With the new Turnbull Government starting in 2015, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has made a few changes to the bilateral relationship between Australia and Japan. This included a slight pullback in terms of the recent bid for the upgrade of the Royal Australian Navy submarine fleet in
Akie Abe Akie Abe Born , Akie is regarded as a socialite. She is from a wealthy Japanese family; her father is the former president of Morinaga & Co., one of Japan's largest confectionery companies. She was educated at Sacred Heart School in Tokyo (or "Seishin Joshi Gakuin"), a Roman Catholic private elementary through high school, then graduated from Sacred Heart Professional Training College. Abe later worked for Dentsu Inc., the world's largest advertising agency, before marrying Shinzo Abe in 1987. The couple have no children, having undergone unsuccessful fertility treatments earlier in their marriage. In the late 1990s, Abe worked as