Letter from Nikkei Asia's editor: Ready to go global

Hello from Tokyo. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is visiting the U.S. this week, and the cover of the latest issue of our magazine shows Kishida during an exclusive interview at the prime minister's office ahead of his trip. The cover image is the face of the publication, and our magazine team always spends a lot of time deciding on the final design.

At the suggestion of our photo editor, we decided to have the prime minister pose with a globe in his hands. Asking the head of the government to set aside time for a photo shoot was, perhaps unsurprisingly, not easy. We sent several sample photos to Kishida's office in advance so he and his staff could see what kind of images we had in mind. Fortunately, they seemed to like our idea.

Speaking of globes, one of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's many catchphrases was "diplomacy that takes a panoramic view of the world map." As Japan's longest-serving prime minister, Abe actively traveled abroad and, according to the prime minister's office, flew the equivalent of about 39.5 times around the world.

So how does Kishida, who served as a foreign minister under Abe, differ from his former boss in his diplomatic style? Based on our exclusive interview, this week's Big Story takes an in-depth look at the kind of Japan-U.S. relationship Kishida is seeking to build as the world tries to guess the outcome of the American presidential election in November.

Kishida's visit also included the first-ever trilateral summit among the U.S., Japan and the Philippines. The Philippines is Taiwan's geographically closest Southeast Asian neighbor and, like the democratically governed island, also faces rising tensions with Beijing in the South China Sea. Perhaps understandably, more Filipinos