Ahead of the G7 summit in May, Japan will launch a series of G7 ministerial meetings in an attempt to lead discussions on a range of issues, including Russia's war against Ukraine, concerns over energy supplies, the food situation and the global economy.. It is reported by Japan Today.

A total of 15 ministerial meetings are scheduled for this year in Japan, the most the country has hosted during its presidency of the group of major industrialized nations..

Japan is chairing the G7 for the seventh time, and the unity of the group, which also includes the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the US and the EU, is becoming increasingly important against the backdrop of Russian military aggression and rising Chinese power.

Leading up to the three-day G7 summit starting May 19, nine ministerial meetings are scheduled to form the basis of discussions during a meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his counterparts in Hiroshima.

The first of these will be a two-day meeting of ministers responsible for climate, energy and the environment, to be held on April 15 in Sapporo..

Topics for discussion will include efforts to achieve energy security and carbon neutrality while supporting economic growth, according to the Japanese government..

Russia’s war against Ukraine, which began in February 2022, has driven up oil and gas prices around the world, as Moscow has been a key energy exporter, forcing countries to diversify their energy supply, including through the introduction of renewable energy sources.

For three days, starting April 16, G7 foreign ministers will gather in the resort town of Karuizawa to reaffirm their unity in confronting security challenges from Russia and China, as well as North Korea's nuclear and missile program..

The G7 countries have introduced a number of restrictive measures against the Russian Federation, including the freezing of the assets of the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, and the exclusion of Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment network.. They also imposed a ceiling on Russian oil prices to limit Moscow's key source of revenue..

The meeting is also likely to be a chance for top diplomats to reaffirm their resolve to resist unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force and call for a "

As the global economy grapples with persistent inflation and the aftermath of the Russian war, finance ministers and central bankers will hold talks in Niigata City from May 11 to 13, about a week before the Hiroshima summit..

Recovering from the coronavirus pandemic and addressing developing country debt problems remain key topics, while worries about global financial stability arose following the recent collapse of a Silicon Valley bank.

Treasury ministers are likely to discuss increased regulation of the cryptocurrency sector in order to increase business transparency and protect consumer rights.

The two-day meeting of agriculture ministers in Miyazaki on April 22 is expected to be dominated by discussions of a food supply crisis and rising food prices as Russia's war has disrupted key crop and fertilizer markets..

Fixing vulnerabilities in communications infrastructure will be discussed when ministers responsible for digital affairs meet for two days from April 29 in Takasaki city.

Ukraine's Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov is considering traveling to Japan to join the meeting and share how his country dealt with Russian cyberattacks, according to Japanese officials..

Also scheduled is a two-day meeting of labor ministers on 22 April and a meeting of ministers of science and technology from 12 to 14 May.

Education ministers will meet May 12-15, while health ministers are scheduled to meet in Nagasaki May 13-14..

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What is important to understand about the position of Tokyo and bilateral relations against the backdrop of the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to Kyiv? What has changed the most in Japan in relation to Ukraine after the full-scale invasion of Russia? How to make the Japanese presidency of the G7 become an impetus for the transition of bilateral relations between Kiev and Tokyo to a new level? The director of the New Europe Center Alyona Getmanchuk answers these questions in the article “Turning Point: Why did the Prime Minister of Japan come to Ukraine”.