Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, fresh off his return from Washington, said Sunday that U.S. President Donald Trump did not press him to boost Japan’s defense spending or discuss tariffs on Japanese automobiles during their first meeting a day earlier.
Speaking on an NHK program, the prime minister said Trump, who Japanese officials had feared might ask Tokyo to continue to hike its own defense budget, did not broach the issue.
“It’s not a matter of simply increasing the amount of money, and it is not something that the United States should tell Japan to do,” Ishiba said. “It is for Japan to make that judgment.”
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