Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba yesterday said that he would have “frank discussions” with US president-elect Donald Trump, saying that cooperation between them was vital to ensuring a “free and open Pacific.”
“I will have frank discussions with incoming president Trump and lead the alliance to new heights,” Ishiba said in parliament in a key policy address. “Naturally, the US has its own national interest and Japan has its own national interest. That is why I think exchanging opinions frankly and enhancing the national interests of both countries in a synergetic way will help realize a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Beijing has displayed increasingly assertive behavior in territorial disputes in the Asia-Pacific region, including around Taiwan.
Photo: AFP
Tokyo is also alarmed by nuclear-armed North Korea’s expansion of its missile activities. Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his first term.
Ishiba, a self-confessed defense “geek,” has called for the creation of an Asian NATO with its principle of an attack on one being an attack on all.
“The Japan-US security alliance is the foundation of Japan’s diplomacy and security,” Ishiba said. “At the same time, however, the United States receives great strategic benefits from the existence of facilities and areas [controlled by] US forces in Japan.”
In Trump’s first term, then-Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe appeared to have warm personal relations with the US president, playing golf together several times.
Ishiba and the US president-elect had what the Japanese prime minister called a “very friendly” telephone conversation after Trump’s election win earlier this month.
Key allies Japan and the US are each other’s top foreign investors, and 54,000 US military personnel are stationed in Japan, mostly in Okinawa, east of Taiwan.
Japan has been shedding its strict pacifist stance, moving to obtain “counterstrike” capabilities.
US President Joe Biden and Ishiba’s predecessor, former Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida, announced a “new era” in defense in April.
Japan is already in the process of doubling its military spending to the NATO standard of 2 percent of GDP, but Trump’s “America First” approach could mean that in his second term he could provide less cash and press Japan to do more.
Trump also caused panic among some of the biggest US trading partners on Monday when he said he would impose tariffs of 25 percent on Mexican and Canadian imports, and 10 percent on goods from China.
Many Japanese exporters, including automakers Toyota and Honda, have plants in Mexico and in Canada. Both firms’ shares fell sharply this week.
Japanese government officials have declined to comment on Trump’s tariff threats, and Ishiba did not address the issue directly yesterday, but Masakazu Tokura, chairman of Japan’s most influential business organization, Keidanren, on Tuesday said that the impact on Japanese firms could be “enormous.”
Trump could also press Japan to join expanded US efforts to limit exports to China, such as semiconductor equipment and artificial intelligence chips, which could hurt Japanese firms.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS