TOKYO (AFP): In Japan, US President Donald Trump will meet the Emperor, hold talks with new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and make a speech on the USS George Washington aircraft carrier.
In his stay from Oct 27 to Oct 29, the US President will also sign deals on critical minerals and shipbuilding, and may even be gifted some gold-plated golf balls, media reports said.
AFP looks at the main issues for the visit.
Hosting US troops
Tokyo is Washington’s closest regional ally. A security treaty obliges the United States to defend Japan if attacked and allows US troops to be stationed there.
But Trump has said he wants Tokyo to pay more to host the around 60,000 US military personnel currently in Japan, deriding the decades-old pact as a free ride.
If the United States were attacked, Japan “doesn’t have to help us at all” and is free to “watch it on a Sony television”, Trump said in his first term.
Multiple sexual assaults by American troops in Japan, most infamously the 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old girl by three US Marines, have angered many Japanese over the years.
Military spending
Long-pacifist Japan is adopting a more muscular military stance as relations with China worsen, with Beijing hardening its territorial claim to Taiwan, visible on a clear day from the nearest Japanese island.
Japan has moved to acquire “counter-strike” capabilities including Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States, and plans to deploy domestically developed, longer-range Type 12 surface-to-ship missiles to military bases.
Takaichi – who only became Prime Minister last week – said on Oct 24 that Japan’s target of spending two per cent of its gross domestic product on defence would be achieved this fiscal year, two years earlier than planned.
But US officials want Japan to spend even more, potentially matching the five per cent of GDP pledged by Nato members – except Spain – in June.
Trade
Most Japanese imports into the United States are subject to tariffs of 15 per cent, but this is less painful than the 25 per cent first threatened.
Japan’s US-bound car exports slumped 24 per cent in September in value terms year-on-year, a blow for an automotive sector that accounts for around eight per cent of jobs in the Asian nation.
Trump is expected to dine with the chairman of carmaker Toyota and other business leaders on the evening of Oct 29.
Under the terms of their July trade deal, Japan is expected to invest US$550 billion (S$713 billion) into the United States, according to the White House.
Japan has said though that only one per cent to two per cent of what Trump calls a “signing bonus” will be actual investment, with the rest covered by loans and loan guarantees.
Washington also wants Japan to stop buying Russian energy, to import US gas and to invest in a long-stalled pipeline project in Alaska trumpeted by the US President.
‘Hot’ pickup trucks
Ahead of his visit, Trump praised Takaichi, Japan’s first woman prime minister, noting their shared closeness to assassinated former premier Shinzo Abe.
“I hear great things about her,” Trump said.
Abe – who gave Mr Trump a gold-coloured golf club that he then misplaced – was a “just a fantastic person, and he liked her a lot, (and) she liked him a lot”.
Trump wants Japan to import more American products, including rice and cars, particularly “very beautiful” Ford F-150 pickup trucks.
Japan might buy 100 of them for road and dam inspections, and display some outside the state guesthouse when Trump visits, local media said.
Takaichi “has good taste. That’s a hot truck”, Mr Trump said in response to the reports. -- AFP
