Ishiba in Washington: Japan Reenters the Trump Era
Shigeru Ishiba and Donald Trump met in the White House as part of an official Japanese state visit on February 7th. (Wikimedia Commons).
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba met United States President Donald Trump at the White House during an official state visit on February 7. Ishiba was the second world leader to meet Trump since the latter formally took office for his second term—following only Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had visited Trump three days earlier.
Per the White House, Ishiba and Trump agreed that the U.S.-Japan alliance represented the “cornerstone of peace, security and prosperity” in the Indo-Pacific, expressed continued focus on multilateral cooperation with other Indo-Pacific democracies such as Australia, South Korea, the Philippines, and India, and criticized China for its provocations in the South China Sea, rejecting any unilateral attempts to change the “status quo by force or coercion” in the region. The two leaders also condemned North Korean nuclear and missile tests. According to Mainichi, Ishiba also secured Trump’s support for repatriating the twelve remaining Japanese citizens who were abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, with Trump promising to raise the issue in a possible future U.S.-North Korea meeting.
Per Reuters, Trump stated his intention to cut the 68.5 billion dollar U.S. trade deficit with Japan, although he expressed optimism that it “should be pretty easy to do.” Ishiba, in turn, declared that Japan would make a one trillion dollar direct investment in the U.S. and increase imports of American liquified natural gas, according to NHK. The two leaders also announced Nippon Steel’s bid for ownership of U.S. Steel, previously blocked by Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden on national security grounds, would be modified into a Nippon Steel investment into the struggling U.S. company instead.
Per The New York Times, Trump has openly initiated conflict with several traditional U.S. allies in the month since he took office, particularly in the Americas and Europe. He threatened tariffs against significant trade partners such as Canada and Mexico, expressed interest in a potential U.S. takeover of Greenland or the Panama Canal, and accused European partners in NATO of not contributing enough support to the alliance. However, the president has taken a far more passive stance with Japan and other United States allies in the Indo-Pacific; Japan has so far avoided any direct tariffs from the Trump administration.
Per the Associated Press, the late Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, famously fostered a personal relationship with Trump during the latter’s first term. While Abe and Trump bonded over rounds of golf, dinners, and sumo matches, the more reserved Ishiba may struggle to replicate his former political rival’s success. Leading a minority government in the National Diet, Ishiba will need to navigate Japan through his American counterpart’s unpredictable diplomacy.