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New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern shakes hands with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Photo: Reuters

New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern gets Japan and China confused during official visit

  • Ardern is in Japan to discuss trade and tourism with the prime minister Shinzo Abe. She will also watch an All Blacks game at the Rugby World Cup
  • A report released by the Asia New Zealand Foundation questioned whether the relationship with Japan had been allowed to ‘drift’ with more attention being paid to China
New Zealand
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has blamed jet lag for an embarrassing gaffe on her first official visit to Japan.

Ardern had only just touched down in the country and was giving an interview when she said in her opening remarks it was an “incredibly exciting time for New Zealand in its relationship with China – excuse me sorry, with Japan”.

When asked later about the blunder, Ardern put the mistake down to jet lag, having only just arrived from New Zealand.

“You’ll understand I’ve been on continuous travel and just this moment I stopped here,” Ardern said.

New Zealand’s PM Jacinda Ardern speaks to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a meeting in Tokyo. Photo: AP

Japan is three hours behind New Zealand and a direct flight between the two countries takes 11 hours.

Ardern is in Japan to discuss trade and tourism with the prime minister Shinzo Abe.

The timing was unfortunate for Ardern. A report released on Thursday by the Asia New Zealand Foundation questioned whether New Zealand had allowed its relationship with Japan to “drift”, with more attention now being paid to China.

“Perhaps we have taken the relationship with Japan a little bit for granted,” said the foundation’s executive director Simon Draper. Japan is New Zealand’s fourth-largest trading partner and worth NZ$8.8 billion (US$5.6 billion) per year.

You’ll understand I’ve been on continuous travel and just this moment I stopped here.
Jacinda Ardern

After holding talks with his Kiwi counterpart, Abe on Thursday praised Ardern for being a “role model for women”.

“I'd like to express my respect to Prime Minister Ardern who has become a role model for women across the globe by engaging in child-rearing and premiership at the same time,” Abe told a joint news conference in Tokyo.

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In June 2018, Ardern became the first head of government to give birth while in office since Pakistan’s premier Benazir Bhutto welcomed her daughter in 1990.

Abe has vowed to create “a society in which all women shine”. However, female lawmakers in Japan account for only 10.2 per cent of the country’s powerful lower house, ranking it 164th for female representation among the world's 192 countries, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

Ardern’s first trip to Japan since she took office in 2017 comes as the country hosts the 2019 Rugby World Cup. The two leaders presented each other with the uniforms of their respective teams.
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern and Japan PM Shinzo Abe hold jerseys bearing their names after a joint press conference in Tokyo. Photo: Getty Images

On Saturday, Ardern will watch New Zealand’s All Blacks kick off their World Cup campaign against fourth-ranked South Africa.

At the news conference, Ardern said the two countries could do more together as their relationship is stable in a "challenging and changing" global environment.

"We discussed our sheer desire to further regional and economic integration through expanding the membership of the CPTPP," she said, referring to the 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact.

Ardern will next travel to the UN leaders general assembly meeting in New York, where she will give the keynote speech at the climate action summit.

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While in New York, Ardern will hold her first ever formal meeting with US President Donald Trump, and given the pair’s chequered history, she will no doubt be keen to avoid any further diplomatic muddles.

In November 2017, one month after Ardern took office, Trump allegedly mistook her for the wife of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the east Asia summit in Vietnam.

Ardern later apologised for indiscreetly discussing the incident with a friend. The friend – comedian Tom Sainsbury – revealed in a radio interview that Ardern had told her Trump was “not as orange in real life”.

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