Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun on December 31, 2017, said that Shinzo Abe's government in Japan is trying to improve relations with China by cooperating on development assistance to African countries with a view to gaining African support for becoming a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, for which it has taken initiatives such as the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD); stopping North Korea’s nuclear and missile development; putting bilateral relations on a stable path; facilitating Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to China in 2018; and preventing China from bringing Kenya's Mombasa Port under its influence.8 in Yokohama.)