Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday said Japan will accept 150 Syrians over five years, treating them not as refugees but as exchange students. The initiative accompanies other efforts by Japan to help stabilize conflict-stricken Syria and its announcement comes days before Group of Seven leaders gather for a summit in Mie Prefecture.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and visiting Estonian counterpart Taavi Roivas pledged Friday to strengthen cooperation on cybersecurity and digital identification technology.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a ¥600 million grant-in-aid pledge to Zimbabwe on Monday to help bring more Japanese companies back to the former agricultural powerhouse amid an aggressive foray by China. [...] also said Japan would maintain close consultation with Zimbabwe to counter the severe food shortages there.

As India gives visa-on-arrival to the Japanese, Tokyo has responded by further relaxing conditions for multiple-entry visas for short-term stay for ordinary Indian passport holders. [...] The relaxation is based on an understanding reached between the two countries during Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's visit to India in December 2015.

After efforts to remold security policy and gain traction in diplomacy toward Asia and dealing with wartime history disputes in 2015, Japanese policymakers face even greater challenges on the international stage in the coming year.

Japan and South Korea have very close alliances with the United States. They also have had diplomatic relations with each other for 50 years, not to mention considerable trade back and forth during that time. At a popular level, many Japanese are wild about Korean bulgogi and soap operas while many Koreans love Japanese sushi and anime. That doesn’t mean, however, that the two countries are particularly close. 

India selected Japan to help build its first high-speed rail link in a coup for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a defeat for China, which also had bid for the signature project. The $15 billion deal clinches three years of negotiations and reflects the deepening relationship between India and Japan stemming from the personal relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Abe. 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday said that the India-Japan bilateral relationship has the “greatest potential,” a view that was shared by his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.