After ill-considered comments during his campaign about Japan’s contribution to the military alliance and his suggestion that Japan and South Korea – another invaluable Asian ally – should consider developing nuclear weapons, a more normal diplomatic dynamic seems to have taken hold during the first weeks of Trump’s presidency.
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To overturn this, Abe would need not just a two-thirds majority in both the lower house, and upper house (the House of Councillors), but also a simple majority in a national referendum.
But nearly certain to overshadow the visit will be Trump’s first major policy setback, an appeals court panel’s decision Thursday to keep in place the halt on the president’s much-touted travel ban.
Now Trump, after fractious encounters with the leaders of United States allies Mexico and Australia, has a chance to improve his image on the world stage through Abe’s visit.
The GPIF had long concentrated its investments in Japanese government bonds but, under Abe’s orders, has been buying up Japanese stocks over the past three years. He has said privately that the retreat is ideal for this use. “I would expect, certainly, for you to hear on that subject and in concrete terms that President Trump is committed to that treaty”, the official noted. The president is expected to speak on that subject, the official said.
Indeed, that affirmation was exactly what Abe wanted to hear, a Japanese official said.
It is possible Abe’s talks with Trump could highlight differences over their stances on trade issues, but Abe hopes to underscore the importance of the Japan-U.S. alliance and confirm that Tokyo and Washington will promote economic cooperation, creating the impression that overall, a cooperative relationship is developing.
“I think Japan having a sizeable current-account surplus is definitely a political liability now”, Takuji Okubo, chief economist and principal at Japan Macro Advisors, told Bloomberg News.
Abe is scheduled to arrive in Washington D.C. on February 9 and then meet with the president at the White House on February 10.
Pursuit of a possible new, direct trade compact between the two countries is also expected to be discussed when the two leaders golf together Saturday at the president’s resort in Palm Beach, Florida. The two world leaders are scheduled to discuss economic relations during the weekend over golf at the president’s retreat. It’s being taken as a huge personal compliment by Abe and may go some way toward easing Tokyo’s concerns about Trump.
President Donald Trump’s meeting with Japan’s prime minister offers a chance to shore up a long-standing security alliance and fix economic ties shaken by USA withdrawal from a Pacific trade pact.
She added in an email exchange that the golf outing may help Abe replicate another element of the 1980s: the close “Ron-Yasu” relationship that then-Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone built with President Ronald Reagan. Trump should amplify these messages in his meetings with Abe. Effectively framing Japan as part of the solution, not the problem, could prove crucial to the Abe administration’s efforts to ensure that Trump’s criticisms do not turn into concrete punitive measures – or to blunt the impact if they do. In this theatre, it is not just Japan and the U.S. but also other countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei that are in dispute with China in the sea through which some $5-trillion of ship-borne trade passes each year.
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With a proposed $450 billion in infrastructure investments in the United States, Japan would generate 700,000 jobs, the paper claims, according to reports in the Japanese media. Trump said last month it was “impossible” for US carmakers to sell their vehicles in the country, a remark that drew a defensive response from Abe. The prospect of a such a deal was foundational to Japan’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
