Japan, U.S. arranging summit around April 10: sources

    TOKYO, Jan. 18 Kyodo - Japan and the United States are arranging a summit between Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and President Joe Biden around April 10, sources close to the matter said Thursday.

    The two governments had been working toward a visit by Kishida as a state guest in early March but moved the date back since Biden's State of the Union address to Congress is now set for March 7, the sources said.

    At the summit, Kishida is expected to call for strengthening cooperation in the fields of defense, economic security, outer space and cybersecurity, according to the sources. He is also likely to give an address to the U.S. Congress.

    Also Thursday, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said Kishida will visit the United States "this spring."

    The upcoming state visit "will be in part a recognition, a celebration of what Japan has accomplished" in recent years in the areas of "security, diplomacy, economic growth and soft power," he told a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.

    During the trip, Kishida may visit other U.S. cities in addition to Washington, the sources added.

    Kishida will be the first Japanese leader to visit the United States as a state guest since former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did so in 2015 during the administration of then President Barack Obama.

    The State of the Union address will be an opportunity for the Democratic president to garner public support in his bid for reelection in November, possibly in a rematch against his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.

    The sources also said "Super Tuesday" on March 5, when many U.S. states hold their presidential primary contests, and Japan's parliamentary deliberations on a draft budget for next fiscal year were also factors in pushing the U.S.-Japan summit back to April.

    Kishida said he was invited by Biden to visit the United States in "early 2024" during their bilateral talks last November in San Francisco on the sidelines of an annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit.

==Kyodo