(Bloomberg) -- Japan is getting its pitch across to US President-elect Donald Trump for continued strong relations, even as its unpopular prime minister stays home to deal with an unstable political situation.
An announcement on Monday by SoftBank Group Corp. of plans to invest $100 billion over the next four years to create thousands of new jobs in the US follows a visit to Washington by a close aide of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, and a dinner meeting between Trump, his wife Melania, and the widow of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Abe was the first world leader to visit Trump after his 2016 election victory, and their warm bond is often cited as one reason for Japan’s relatively stable ties with the US during Trump’s first term. Many in Tokyo have expressed concern about whether Ishiba — who has little international experience — will succeed in establishing a similar relationship.
“I was very close to the Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. He was great,” Trump said on Monday, a day after the meeting with Abe’s widow Akie. The former prime minister was shot and killed in 2022.
In meetings with Trump before and after the 2017 inauguration, Abe highlighted Japan’s contributions to the US economy through job creation and investment, including a previous investment pledge from SoftBank.
Tokyo was still hit with US tariffs on steel and aluminum, and occasional criticism from Trump over its trade surplus with the US, but the US leader didn’t follow through on a demand for Japan to quadruple what it pays for hosting US troops.
Ishiba’s chances of bonding with Trump following his re-election appeared to suffer a setback in November when he was denied a meeting on the way back from a visit to South America.
At the time, Ishiba said Trump staff had explained that the incoming president wasn’t planning to meet any world leaders before his inauguration, an excuse that crumbled with the visit of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Mar-a-Lago soon after.
Yet on Monday, Trump said: “I’d love to see the (Japanese) prime minister, and we will do that.”
He added that he was open to a meeting with Ishiba before his Jan. 20 inauguration, although the prime minister’s domestic commitments, including mandatory appearances in parliament, may make that difficult. Ishiba’s coalition failed to win a parliamentary majority in the October election, leaving his party facing tough negotiations to pass legislation.
In the meantime, Trump and his team are still engaged with Japan. In late November, Akihisa Nagashima, a national security adviser to Ishiba, met with around ten members of Trump’s diplomatic and security teams. In a subsequent interview with Bloomberg, Nagashima said he came away with confidence about Trump’s commitment to the US-Japan alliance, as well as appreciation for Japan’s increases in defense spending.
Tension still exists in US-Japan relations, most notably over political resistance in the US to Nippon Steel Corp.’s bid to buy United States Steel Corp. President Biden is said to plan to block it and Trump has pledged to kill the bid outright.
Still, some uncertainty over who will handle bilateral relations has also been removed with Trump’s announcement late Monday in the US of former investment banker George Glass as his ambassador to Japan. Glass is a former ambassador to Portugal and doesn’t have clear links to Japan.
When Ishiba does meet Trump, the event’s sure to be closely watched for comparisons with the US leader’s meetings with Abe. Besides security and economic matters, they will have at least one less weighty subject to discuss: Trump said he gave Ms. Abe a book and other gifts to pass on to Ishiba.
--With assistance from Yoshiaki Nohara.
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