Japanese PM promises golden age in relations with US during Trump visit | Japan

Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has pledged to realise a “golden age” in relations with the US and to “fundamentally reinforce” her country’s defence posture at the start of a visit by Donald Trump.

The US president, who is in Japan on the second leg of a week-long tour of Asia, and Takaichi quickly signed an agreement laying out a framework to secure the mining and processing of rare earths and other minerals.

The agreement follows China’s recent decision to tighten export controls on the materials, which are crucial for a wide range of products. Trump is scheduled to meet China’s Xi Jinping in South Korea this week for high-stakes talks amid a bruising trade war.

The US and Japan plan to cooperate through use of economic policy and coordinated investment to accelerate development of diversified, liquid and fair markets for critical minerals and rare earths, the White House said in a statement.

The objective of the deal is “to assist both countries in achieving resilience and security of critical minerals and rare earths supply chains”, the statement said.

In a day of profuse mutual praise, Takaichi, who last week became Japan’s first female prime minister, said she would nominate Trump for the Nobel peace prize – an accolade he has coveted since his return to the White House – according to the White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt. Trump claims to have ended several conflicts, although in some cases experts have played down his role.

“I would like to realise a new golden age of the Japan-US alliance, where both Japan and the United States will become stronger and also more prosperous,” Takaichi told the media before she and Trump met privately.

Takaichi, a conservative who has spoken of her admiration for Margaret Thatcher, supports a more robust Japanese military and has paid her respects at Yasukuni, a shrine in Tokyo that honours Japan’s war dead, including war criminals. She supports restrictions on immigration to Japan and has voiced opposition to calls for the introduction of same-sex marriages, as well as to legal changes that would allow female members of the imperial family to become reigning empresses.

The two leaders had begun their first face-to-face meeting watching a live TV broadcast of the third game in baseball’s World Series, featuring the Japanese star Shohei Ohtani.

Takaichi congratulated Trump on his role in securing ceasefires in Gaza and between Thailand and Cambodia, which have been embroiled in a border dispute.

In remarks open to the media before their summit, they made several references to Japan’s late former prime minister Shinzo Abe, with whom Trump formed a close relationship during his first administration.

Takaichi, an Abe protege who shares his hardline stance against China’s military buildup in the region, thanked Trump for his “enduring friendship” with Abe, who was assassinated in 2022.

Speaking on the day of the first hearing day in the trial of the man accused of killing Abe with a homemade gun, Trump described Abe as a “great friend”, adding that he had “spoken so well” of Takaichi long before she became prime minister.

Takaichi presented Trump with Abe’s putter in a glass case, a golf bag signed by the Japanese major winner Hideki Matsuyama and a set of gold-leaf golf balls, according to Kyodo news agency.

Their talks focused on trade and security, months after Takaichi’s predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba, won tariff concessions from the White House in return for huge Japanese investments in the US economy. Japanese plans to buy more American soya beans, pickup trucks and other products to secure further relief from Trump.

In a statement on Tuesday, the leaders “confirmed their strong commitment to implementing this great deal”, adding that the agreement would “help both countries to strengthen economic security, promote economic growth, and thereby continuously lead to global prosperity”.

Takaichi described the US-Japan security relationship as the “greatest alliance in the world”, adding that Japan was “ready to contribute to world peace and stability”.

They also met the families of dozens of Japanese citizens who were abducted by North Korean spies during the cold war, with Trump pledging his support for efforts to determine their fates and, if they are still alive, to have them returned to Japan.

Sakie Yokota, 89, who was among about a dozen relatives who met the leaders, said she hoped Trump would be able to secure the abductees’ release in any future talks with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. Yokota’s then 13-year-old daughter Megumi was snatched from near her home on the Japan Sea coast in 1977 and taken to the North.

“It’s a critical moment,” she said. “We are getting old and this decades-old problem that has been left unresolved is now in the hands of our children.”

Later, onboard the US’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the USS George Washington, which is docked at the Yokosuka naval base near Tokyo, Trump delivered an hour-long speech in which he referenced the US’s southern border, inflation and American football, as well as the possibility of deploying “more than the national guard” to “troubled” US cities.

Takaichi thanked the 6,000 sailors onboard for helping defend Japan and the wider region, telling them that Tokyo was ready to “fundamentally reinforce” its defence capabilities and contribute even more proactively to peace and stability in the region”.

Trump, who met Emperor Naruhito for a second time at the Imperial Palace shortly after arriving in Japan on Monday evening, welcomed Japanese orders for US-made military hardware and said the two economies would do “a lot of trade”.

He congratulated Takaichi on becoming Japan’s first female prime minister, describing it as a “big deal”. Trump said it was an honour to meet her so soon after the launch of her administration, predicting, with typical effusiveness, that she would go on to be one of the country’s “greatest prime ministers”.

“Anything I can do to help Japan, we will be there,” Trump said. “You’re going to do a fantastic job, and we’re going to have a fantastic relationship.”