Takaichi, Trump launch new chapter in Japan-US relations
Japan's new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and U.S. President Donald Trump launched a new chapter in bilateral ties Tuesday, promising at their first summit in Tokyo to bolster cooperation on defense and the economy.
Before having lunch together, Takaichi and Trump signed documents including one on cooperation to secure and supply critical minerals, including rare earths, in an effort to enhance economic security, apparently with China in mind, News.Az reports, citing Kyodo.
At the outset of the meeting, Takaichi, who became Japan's first female prime minister last week, pledged to build a "new golden era" of the Japan-U.S. alliance together with Trump, adding the bilateral relationship has now become "the greatest alliance in the world."
Takaichi praised Trump's role in promoting peace in the Middle East and resolving a conflict between Thailand and Cambodia as "unprecedented historic achievements."
Takaichi told Trump that she would recommend him for the Nobel Peace Prize, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said. The prime minister also reiterated Japan's plan to donate 250 cherry trees to mark the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence next year.
Trump told Takaichi that they will have "a fantastic relationship," saying, "I have always had a great love of Japan and a great respect of Japan, and I will say that this will be a relationship that will be stronger than ever before."
"I want to just let you know -- any time you have any question, any doubt, anything you want, any favors you need, anything I can do to help Japan, we will be there," Trump added.
On Tuesday, Trump, along with Takaichi, also met with family members of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, reiterating Washington's commitment to resolving the issue that has long weighed on relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang, which have no official ties.
With Trump demanding that U.S. allies boost their defense budgets, Takaichi is expected to stress her plan, pledged in her parliamentary speech last week, to increase Japan's defense spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product by March, two years ahead of the previously set goal of fiscal 2027.
Japan has been raising its defense budget significantly since the fiscal 2027 target was set when the government in late 2022 revised its long-term National Security Strategy, which Takaichi has vowed to update next year.
Takaichi, a hard-line conservative and security hawk who is widely regarded as a protege of Shinzo Abe, aims to build a close relationship with Trump, known for his personal rapport with the former Japanese prime minister who was assassinated in 2022.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One before his arrival in Tokyo, Trump praised Takaichi for being "philosophically close" to Abe.
The summit at the capital's State Guest House comes as Tokyo and Washington have been beefing up their longtime alliance to address Beijing's intensifying military activities in the East and South China seas and Pyongyang's nuclear and missile development programs.
In a phone call on Saturday, Takaichi told Trump that strengthening the bilateral alliance is her government's "top priority" and stressed Japan's importance in U.S. strategies toward China and the Indo-Pacific at large.
Against a backdrop of high U.S. tariffs and China's control of rare earth exports, the rivalry between Washington and Beijing on various fronts has been intensifying.
The two leaders are also expected to have affirmed the steady implementation of a trade agreement struck in July, which includes a Japanese commitment to invest $550 billion in key U.S. industries such as semiconductors, critical minerals and shipbuilding as well as increased purchases by Japan of U.S. agricultural and other products.
Based on the bilateral deal, Trump lowered U.S. tariffs on goods from Japan, reducing the levy on automobiles to 15 percent from the previous rate of 27.5 percent.
After the talks, Takaichi and Trump will fly on the Marine One presidential helicopter to the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka, southwest of Tokyo, where they will board the aircraft carrier George Washington, according to a White House source.
Trump last visited Japan in 2019 for a Group of 20 summit in the western city of Osaka. He is on a three-nation Asian tour from Friday and visited Malaysia for Association of Southeast Asian Nations-related meetings before arriving in Japan.
Trump will next travel to South Korea, where he plans to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.
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