JAPAN PERSPECTIVE

Tokyo approaches the Évian G7 as Asia's energy spokesperson, in a context the Japanese press calls the 'worst energy crisis since the 1970s.' Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, in office since October, is making her first European trip since taking power: six days through Britain and Italy before the three-day Évian-les-Bains summit. Her stated priority is clear. 'Representing Asia, the region hit hardest by the current Middle East situation, Japan will take the lead in G7 discussions aimed at ensuring global energy security, especially stabilizing the crude oil market,' says government spokesman Minoru Kihara. The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of global crude flows, hits hard an archipelago almost entirely dependent on hydrocarbon imports. Takaichi arrives with 'three proposals' on energy security and a strand on critical-mineral supply chains. A detail the French press notes but Tokyo embodies: Takaichi is the only G7 leader Trump likes and has never targeted. This singularity gives Japan a particular position — a possible bridge between an unpredictable American president and Europeans on the defensive. Takaichi wants to 'demonstrate that the G7 is working in unity' and is arranging bilaterals and informal talks on the sidelines. For Japan, a high-tech exporter with no energy resources of its own, this summit is not diplomatic theater but a matter of economic survival: stabilizing oil, securing critical minerals, and preserving a G7 unity on which the predictability of its supplies depends.