In the run-up to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s first summit with U.S. President Donald Trump this week, the American leader has shaken the global order via a dizzying array of executive orders and policy changes. But his relative silence about Japan has been deafening in Tokyo’s corridors of power.
The U.S. president, in office for less than three weeks, has unnerved Tokyo by vowing to slap onerous tariffs on allies and partners — including threats against Canada and Mexico that were later walked back — while raging against NATO nations, which he demanded pay more than double the alliance’s current spending target.
Although Trump has largely telegraphed these moves, he has said next to nothing about Japan on the campaign trail or since taking office on Jan. 20. But the president’s recent moves and past tirades about defense-related spending and trade deficits have prompted officials in Tokyo to scramble for ways to placate him and head off any dust-up between the allies during Friday’s meeting with Ishiba.
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