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Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong congratulated his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, on Nov. 22 for his appointment as prime minister of Japan.

PM Lee also congratulated Kishida for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)'s victory in the recent Lower House elections via a telephone call, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) issued on Nov. 22.

Reaffirming the excellent relations between Singapore and Japan, PM Lee said that Singapore looked forward to deepening cooperation with Japan in areas of common interest, including the safe resumption of travel, digitalisation and the digital economy.

Taking to Facebook, PM Lee added that Singapore and Japan is also commemorating 55 years of diplomatic relations this year.

Met several times over the years

PM Lee also invited Kishida to make an official visit to Singapore.

The pair last met in September 2019, when PM Lee delivered the keynote speech at the Singapore Summit.

In his Facebook post, PM Lee said he had met the Japanese premier "a number of times over the years", including when Kishida was foreign minister.

Confident that cooperation will grow under Kishida

PM Lee also said that the two countries are "like-minded partners that support the multilateral trading system and the rules-based international order".

Expressing his confidence that the cooperation between Singapore and Japan will grow under Kishida's leadership, PM Lee also cited the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) as examples where both countries work together.

He further shared Singapore's experience on the Smart Nation Singapore initiative when they spoke about Kishida's Digital Garden City Nation Vision.

LDP win majority in Lower House

Kishida's LDP won 261 seats out of the 465 seats in Japan's Lower House in the general election on Oct. 31, according to Bloomberg.

The results showed a drop in LDP's number of seats as the party held 276 seats before the parliament was dissolved.

This is reportedly the slimmest majority that the LDP has held since ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe led the party back into government in 2012, though the LDP's ally, the Komeito party, is expected to give an additional boost to their coalition, having won 32 seats.

Subsequently, Kishida was re-elected as prime minister by the Japanese parliament on Nov. 10, Kyodo News reported.

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Top image via Prime Minister's Office & Ngau Kai Yan/Ministry of Communications and Information