The United States–Japan alliance is strong, but President Donald Trump has an opportunity to make it stronger than ever. Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is due to meet the president on Thursday and will reportedly lobby him for better trade terms and greater security assistance. Trump should give Japan what it needs.
Tokyo is Washington’s most important ally in the Indo-Pacific. The two nations’ alliance has been steadily built over eight decades, enduring in spite of occasional disagreements, especially on trade. Japan is the U.S.’s indispensable partner in the region, with an irreplaceable economic and technological prowess and decades of close cooperation. This was the case during the Cold War, and it remains so now.
Japan’s importance to America has indeed grown. The Pentagon has labeled China its “sole pacing challenge.” Beijing’s military and industrial power puts it in a league of its own. Communist China seeks to supplant the U.S. and become the world’s leading or sole superpower. To achieve that, it must first achieve mastery in the Pacific, which will soon account for the majority of the world’s economy.
A strong and capable Japan is essential to deterring Beijing’s ambitions, and Tokyo can’t get there on its own.
Accordingly, Prime Minister Takaichi is headed to Washington, D.C., with a wish list. Reportedly, she will ask for enhanced security and intelligence cooperation with the U.S., including a commitment on her part to establish a new Japanese intelligence agency to boost data gathering and coordination with key allies, including the U.S.
The premier is expected to request inclusion in the planned Golden Dome missile defense system. That system, based on Israel’s “Iron Dome,” would use satellite technology to detect and intercept missile attacks or enemy aircraft. Japan’s government is two years away from completing its own network of satellites to track moving objects and could use this network to enhance a Golden Dome in exchange for reaping the benefits of the U.S.’s missile defense technology.
For both Japan and the United States, the Golden Dome makes good sense. Japan’s neighborhood is increasingly volatile. It faces threats from China and North Korea, both nuclear powers with ample ballistic missile capabilities. Japan is right to put advanced missile defense at the top of its priorities list.
Takaichi will also seek cooperation on rare earths development and defense export controls. Some have suggested that the premier might raise concerns about how U.S. and Israeli military action in the Middle East has raised gasoline prices for Japan, the world’s fifth-largest importer of oil.
This might grate on Trump, especially given the administration’s recent annoyance with European allies that refuse to help the U.S. in Operation Epic Fury.
Japan has interests of its own, and it is reasonable for Takaichi to express them. But the prime minister is a powerful pro-American leader of a nation and ally vital to the U.S.’s interests. It will be very much in Trump’s interests to treat her as a special ally.
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She arrives fresh off a resounding electoral victory for her Liberal Democratic Party in February. She has a mandate and, thankfully, much of it intersects with American interests and concerns, particularly regarding China.
Now is the time to boost Takaichi and Japan. Trump is slated for a summit meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in April. By shoring up relations with Japan before that meeting, Trump will have a stronger hand to play against Xi. Beijing will try to exploit any fissures between Washington and Tokyo. The U.S. must demonstrate that it has rock-solid relationships with key allies in the region. That alliance system hinges first and foremost on Japan.