As Japan invests in defence, Canada is becoming more important than ever to Tokyo

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida walk together after a news conference on Jan. 12 in Ottawa.DAVE CHAN/AFP/Getty Images When Canada unveiled its new Indo-Pacific Strategy late last year, one might have thought it had been written for Japan. Not only does it use a term popularized by the late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe as its title, much of the text builds on existing agreements between Ottawa and Tokyo. A month later, Japan published its own updated National Security Strategy, one of three documents laying out a new defence plan that will see Tokyo…