‘Normal’ first summit between Japan’s Ishiba and Trump deemed a success
With Donald Trump targeting a trimming of the US’ deficit in its trade with Japan, tariffs against Tokyo cannot be discounted, analysts say
Although tariffs were not addressed in the joint statement issued after the talks between Ishiba and Trump at the White House, Japan was still likely to be concerned about such levies, observers said.
In their first summit on Friday, the leaders affirmed Washington’s commitment towards Japan’s defence, including through nuclear deterrence, to counter China. They also discussed further multilateral defence cooperation.
While pushing Tokyo to invest in American energy and technology, Trump made clear that he wanted to slash Washington’s US$68 billion trade deficit with Japan, arguing that the issue could be resolved without resorting to tariffs.
Before the meeting, there were concerns in Japan that Trump might insist on a significant increase in defence spending. At the talks, however, Trump refrained from making such demands and instead praised Japan’s plan to raise its defence spending to 2 per cent of gross domestic product.
Japan had long capped defence expenditure at 1 per cent of GDP, but in late 2022 pledged to gradually increase the level to 2 per cent by 2027.
