Turns out, playing the Japanese for fools isn't as easy as Donald Trump thought.
Granted, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's headlong sprint to New York's Trump Plaza wasn't the prime minister's finest moment. It smacked more of desperation and subservience than diplomatic savvy. It backfired as the U.S. president tore up the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and bashed the yen and Toyota via Twitter anyway.
Abe's team is being wise not to let the dealer-maker-in-chief roll Tokyo. That's precisely what would happen if Japan agreed to a bilateral trade deal with a transactional leader with long track records of puffery, double-dealing and alleged deceit. But the question following Sunday's resounding victory is whether it will increase Abe's willingness to put Japan first where his Trump bromance is concerned.
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