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.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS