Thursday’s summit between US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was supposed to see the two leaders sit down in advance of Trump’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to ensure the allies were on the same page.
Instead, with the US-China summit postponed and the Israel-US war on Iran going full blast, their meeting is likely to find Japan more on the defensive, according to analysts and former government officials.
Takaichi would be trying to finesse shifting tariff levels, huge US investment demands and criticism over Tokyo’s hesitation at deploying support ships to the Strait of Hormuz, they said.
“Back then, her primary concern was getting into Trump’s ear before he headed off to his summit with Xi in Beijing. You had really positive momentum,” said Jeremy Chan, senior analyst with the Eurasia Group.
“And now the double whammy of the Iran war and the delay to the China trip. It’s higher stakes, but for the wrong reason.”
Analysts said Takaichi could find Trump keen to have a “normal” summit that distracted from the Middle East – or he could light into her for failing to support the unpopular war and lash out, rhetorically and economically.
