Donald Trump and the new Prime Minister of Japan, Sanae Takaichi, share a nationalist vision that embraces economic protectionism and anti-immigration rhetoric over old multilateral commitments. Both appeal to a conservative base that mixes national pride with nostalgia for past times. The Japanese leader has imported some of the famous slogans from Trump's MAGA movement ("Japan first") and aims to strengthen the traditional security alliance with Washington. However, she also faces the challenging task of dealing with the commercial demands of the U.S. president, who has applied pressure equally in his trade war with both friends and rivals.
In this scenario of ideological alignment but with open fronts in commercial relations, Takaichi and Trump held a summit on Tuesday during the second day of the U.S. president's visit to Japan, a key military ally for Washington in the Asian region. In addition to sealing several commercial agreements, they both signed black caps with an English phrase that could well have come from the Japanese current of the MAGA movement: "Japan is back".
The bilateral meeting was a continuous exchange of compliments from both sides. "I have always had a great love for Japan. Anything I can do to help Japan, we Americans will be there," Trump stated at the beginning of the meeting at the Akasaka Palace, the official residence of the Japanese government for receiving foreign dignitaries, where he was welcomed by an honor guard from the Japan Self-Defense Forces.
Takaichi did not spare praise for Trump in public for "promoting peace in the Middle East" and in many other parts of the world, and she expressed her intention to nominate him for the next Nobel Peace Prize. The Japanese leader stated that the bilateral relationship has become "the greatest alliance in the world." She also committed to striving to build a "new golden era" between the two countries.
Takaichi has only been in office for a week, attracting much international attention in her first days leading the world's fourth-largest economy. She is the first woman to govern a country where politics has traditionally been dominated by men and which has one of the worst gender gaps. "I also want to congratulate her for being the first woman elected as prime minister. It is a very important achievement," Trump told her.
There was much anticipation to see how two leaders who are united by their admiration for the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who mentored Takaichi and had a close personal relationship with Trump during the Republican's first term in the White House, would get along. Japanese media have recalled the many golf outings and hamburger meals that Trump and Abe shared between 2017 and 2019. The new Japanese leader gave Trump one of the golf clubs used by Abe as a gift.
Like her mentor, Takaichi advocates for Japan's rearmament and the need to break away from the pacifist policy inherited from the post-war period. She has promised to increase defense spending to 2% of GDP (from the current level of around 1.8%) for the current fiscal year ending in March, two years earlier than previous governments had committed. However, this does not convince her Washington ally. Trump has publicly stated that the increase to 2% is still insufficient and that Tokyo needs to reach the 5% threshold he demanded from NATO member countries.
Although military spending may not be high compared to its GDP, Japan, as the world's fourth-largest economy, is the tenth largest defense spender globally. Additionally, as reiterated from Tokyo, they have been shifting from their traditional defensive military profile to purchasing much more offensive weaponry from the U.S., especially Tomahawk missiles.
The Japanese public is also debating whether Takaichi will push forward an old Abe initiative to change nuclear non-proliferation legislation and thus authorize, for deterrent purposes, the deployment of U.S. atomic warheads on Japanese territory.
During the summit with Takaichi in Tokyo, Trump was accompanied by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who separately held meetings with their Japanese counterparts to discuss ongoing trade negotiations. On the table is the Asian country's commitment to invest $550 billion in the U.S. This was the Japanese government's concession in exchange for the Trump administration lowering tariffs to 15% (from 25%).
Among the commercial agreements signed on Tuesday is cooperation for increased joint production of the sought-after rare earth minerals, ensuring Washington strengthens key supply chains in the technology industry after China, which almost monopolizes the processing of these critical minerals, tightened export controls this month.
After being received on Monday by Emperor Naruhito and on Tuesday morning by Prime Minister Takaichi, the U.S. president posed for a photo at an event with the families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, when they were recruited in the neighboring country to teach Japanese to North Korean agents.
In the afternoon, Trump, accompanied by his Japanese counterpart, delivered a speech aboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier at the Yokosuka naval military base, south of Tokyo, where Japanese and U.S. naval forces are stationed.
In front of the soldiers, Trump reiterated his old campaign nationalist speeches ("From now on, if we are in a war, we are going to win the war"), but he also praised Takaichi, presenting her as a "winner." He also boasted of the strong alliance between the two countries, which he described as "rising from the ashes" of World War II.