Japan has been Australia's closest and most consistent partner in Asia since the 1980s. Each country views the bilateral trade, investment and diplomatic relationship as vital to its national interest and both countries also appreciate their important role in Asia and have a shared desire to see it prosper.
Japan describes Australia as its most important security partner after our common ally, the United States. Australia and Japan cooperate closely bilaterally and trilaterally with the United States, including through the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue.
Australia is an important and growing market for Japan. In 2019, 522,000 Australian tourists visited Japan, marking a 13 per cent increase year-on-year and 10 consecutive years of visitor growth, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Today, Japan is Australia's closest partner in Asia, and Japan describes Australia as its most important security partner after the US, a common ally of both countries. The Ninth Japan- Australia 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Consultations were held in June 2021.
In key findings, seven in ten Australians express confidence in Abe, 79% recognise Japan as a democracy, and in the “feelings” thermometer, Japan came in at 69 degrees, around the midpoint of 63 in 2007 and 74 in 2018.
Japan has been Australia's closest and most consistent partner in Asia since the 1980s. Each country views the bilateral trade, investment and diplomatic relationship as vital to its national interest and both countries also appreciate their important role in Asia and have a shared desire to see it prosper.
Japan's success in the early months of the Pacific War led elements of the Imperial Japanese Navy to propose invading Australia. In December 1941 the Navy proposed including an invasion of Northern Australia as one of Japan's "stage two" war objectives after South-East Asia was conquered.
The ties between the US and Japan go far beyond both the cultural bonds and the shared cultural values that have emerged between us. The United States is an invaluable and irreplaceable partner to Japan and, indeed, our closest ally.
Japanese plans
The Navy wanted to invade Australia and deny the country as a base to either America or Britain. The Army felt it did not have the strength to invade and fully occupy so vast a continent.
Foreign relations between neighbouring countries Australia and New Zealand, also referred to as Trans-Tasman relations, are extremely close. Both countries share a British colonial heritage as antipodean Dominions and settler colonies, and both are part of the wider Anglosphere.
Travellers who test positive on arrival will be required to quarantine at a designated facility. Japan has resumed its visa exemption scheme for short-stay tourism and business travel. Travellers from Australia no longer need a visa to travel to Japan for stays of up to 90 days.
There are in June 2022 9,437 resident Australians in Japan.
For Australians wishing to move to Japan, it is advisable to get your Visa and residence permit prior to your arrival. Whilst Australians are lucky enough to be able to enter Japan for a short-term stay without a visa, you will need to have one if you wish to live there.
Australia is the biggest supplier of energy and key minerals to Japan, reflecting Australia's position as a reliable, safe and competitive producer of raw resources. Australia provides around two-thirds of Japan's coal, and a third of Japan's LNG imports.
Japan maintains diplomatic relations with every United Nations member state except for North Korea, in addition to UN observer states Holy See, as well as Kosovo, Cook Islands and Niue.
At 8.44 am on 15 August 1945 the Australian Government received the news that Japan had surrendered and the Second World War was over.
Australians had feared Japan as a potential invader from the time of the Russo–Japanese War of 1904–5, and in 1942 that fear seemed to be about to come to fruition. Although Britain was an ally of Japan between 1902 and 1923, its government was suspicious of Japan's intentions in the Pacific.
Like the sugarcane workers, Japanese divers and ship crew were nearly all indentured—forced to work for a set period until they had repaid their debts. The work was grueling, hours were long, and the risk of injury and death was high due to decompression sickness, cyclones, and shark attacks.
About two thirds agreed that Japan had planned to invade Australia in 1942. Around three quarters tended to agree that the Kokoda campaign had saved Australia from invasion and that the Brisbane Line strategy actually entailed abandoning northern Australia to the Japanese.
60% of Taiwanese pick Japan as favorite foreign country | The Japan Times.
Similarly, a 2017 opinion poll by the Moscow-based non-governmental think tank Levada-Center states that Russians identified India as one of their top five "friends", with the others being Belarus, China, Kazakhstan and Syria.
The Japanese first attacked the Australian mainland on 19 February 1942 when they launched a devastating air raid on Darwin in the Northern Territory. Two weeks later, more aircraft attacked Broome in Western Australia killing about 70 people.
The US naval victory at the battle of Midway, in early June 1942, removed the Japan's capability to invade Australia by destroying its main aircraft carriers.
Between February 1942 and November 1943, during the Pacific War of World War II, the Australian mainland, domestic airspace, offshore islands, and coastal shipping were attacked at least 111 times by aircraft from the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Force and Imperial Japanese Army Air Force.