The Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to form the Permanent Mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.


Japan will open office independent of its embassy in Belgium. With the international order shaken by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the government decided that it was necessary to strengthen cooperation with NATO, the author of the statement said.

The total budget of the mission in the fiscal year of 2023 will be triple of the regular embassy.

The NATO Permanent Mission was established in the Belgian Embassy in Brussels in July 2018. The ambassador of the mission is the ambassador to Belgium, but the direction is to make it independent and appoint a full-time ambassador.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida became the first Japanese prime minister to attend the NATO Summit in Spain in June.

Amidst the growing complexity of the international situation, the Prime Minister said that "security between Europe and the Indo-Pacific is inseparable." The same is true for strengthening the functions of the NATO representative office, and it is a policy to promote cooperation between Japan and NATO.