By AAMER MADHANI and MARI YAMAGUCHI, Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba didn’t skimp on the legwork as he ready for his first assembly with President Donald Trump.
He huddled this week with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, two executives Trump lately hosted on the White Home. He sought recommendation from his rapid predecessor, Fumio Kishida.
Ishiba even known as on the widow of Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister with whom Trump bonded over rounds of golf throughout his first time period.
“It will be our first face-to-face talks, so I would like to focus on building a personal relationship of trust between the two of us,” Ishiba instructed reporters earlier than heading to Washington for his White Home go to, going down Friday.
It’s a tall order for Ishiba to copy Trump’s relationship with Abe, who resigned as prime minister in 2020 and was assassinated by a gunman as he delivered a marketing campaign speech in 2022. However, Ishiba is making it a precedence to attach with Trump.
Ishiba, who took workplace in October, will probably be simply the second world chief to go to the White Home throughout Trump’s new time period. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week was the primary hosted by Trump.
Nonetheless, making the whirlwind journey is important for Ishiba as he appears to be like to make sure that the U.S. and Japan keep on stable footing with the return of Trump and his “America First” worldview. Each international locations have been challenged by China’s rising financial and army assertiveness within the Pacific and considerations a few nuclear-armed North Korea.
Ishiba will even look to remind Trump — who has proposed tariffs on each mates and foes in an effort to spice up American manufacturing — in regards to the long-running U.S.-Japan alliance. Japanese firms make use of practically 1 million Individuals and have held the highest spot for cumulative overseas direct funding into the U.S. over the past 5 years.
One other delicate difficulty Ishiba is ready to deal with is Japan’s Nippon Metal’s efforts to win approval for a $14.1 billion acquisition of the Pittsburgh-headquartered U.S. Metal. President Joe Biden earlier than leaving workplace final month blocked the deal, citing nationwide safety concern. Trump in December mentioned he was “totally against the once great and powerful U.S. Steel being bought by a foreign company.”
Ishiba isn’t essentially planning on citing the deal however has prepped to make a fulsome case for Nippon if Trump raises it, in response to a Japanese authorities official who insisted on anonymity to debate the chief’s personal deliberations.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shakes palms as he’s welcomed to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photograph/Kevin Wolf)
Nippon and U.S. Metal have filed a lawsuit geared toward overturning the blocking of the deal. And Nippon has stepped up its public push, arguing the “transaction is in line with President Trump’s focus” on manufacturing and “contributes to President Trump’s goals promoting U.S. investment, creating U.S. jobs, and strengthening U.S. manufacturing.”
Protection spending can also be anticipated to be on the leaders’ agenda. Japan has pledged to lift protection spending to 2% of GDP by 2027, or 60% over 5 years. That degree of spending meets the benchmark set for members of the North Atlantic Treaty Group. Japan cooperates with the NATO alliance however shouldn’t be a member.
However Trump is urgent NATO and different allies to spend much more on protection, difficult them to lift spending to five% of their general financial output — a benchmark that will probably be tough for international locations to achieve.
Ishiba might remind Trump that Japan is an enormous supporter of the U.S. protection business, spending billions of {dollars} on fighter jets and missile protection methods to attempt to salve any considerations from the Republican president.
“President Trump is actually a good listener, too. Perhaps we (will) have a good chemistry,” Ishiba instructed reporters earlier this week.
Ishiba invited SoftBank’s Son and OpenAI’s Altman to his workplace this week as he prepped for his Trump assembly. The U.S. president final month introduced Son, Altman and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison to the White Home to highlight a $500 billion funding for infrastructure tied to synthetic intelligence by the three executives’ firms.
Ishiba throughout his assembly instructed them that he desires Japan and america to deepen cooperation in AI to make the world a extra peaceable and safer place.
“I think Prime Minister Ishiba certainly sees this is an important and critical opportunity for him to reestablish what were exceptional bonds between President Trump and Japan in the first Trump administration,” mentioned Sen. Invoice Hagerty, a Tennessee Republican who served as Trump’s ambassador to Japan throughout his first administration.
Abe was among the many few world leaders who developed a bond with Trump throughout his first time period.
Abe constructed a rapport with Trump over rounds of golf and dinners with their wives on the president’s Palm Seashore, Florida, resort, Mar-a-Lago. Throughout Trump’s 2019 state go to to Japan, Abe took Trump to a sumo wrestling match and organized for him to be the primary chief to satisfy with Japan’s newly enthroned emperor.
Abe and Trump’s tight bond was all of the extra exceptional, as a result of Trump early in his first White Home time period threatened a “big border tax” on Japanese automaker Toyota if it constructed a plant in Mexico and derided Japan for what he deemed inadequate protection spending.
Hagerty, at an occasion at Washington’s Hudson Institute on Thursday, mentioned it won’t be a foul thought for Ishiba — who golfed in highschool however has since given up the game — to mud off his golf equipment as he appears to be like to bond with Trump.
“I hope that he takes the golf lessons back up again,” Haggerty mentioned, “because I found golf diplomacy to be a wonderful opportunity for us.”
Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo. AP author Didi Tang contributed to this report.
