US president Donald Trump praised Japan’s first female leader Sanae Takaichi in Tokyo on Tuesday, welcoming her pledge to accelerate a military build-up and signing deals on trade and rare earths.
Ms Takaichi, a protegee of Mr Trump’s late friend Shinzo Abe, applauded the US president’s push to resolve global conflicts and said she would nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize, according to Mr Trump’s spokesperson.
Japan is also expected to offer a package of US investments under a $550-billion deal agreed this year, including shipbuilding, and pledge purchases of US soybeans, gas and trucks, sources familiar with the talks said.
Those gestures may temper any Trump demands for Tokyo to spend more towards its security in the face of an increasingly assertive China, which Ms Takaichi sought to head off by promising to fast-track plans to increase defence spending to 2 per cent of GDP.
READ MORE
“Everything I know from Shinzo and others, you will be one of the great prime ministers. I’d also like to congratulate you on being the first woman prime minister. It’s a big deal,” Mr Trump told Ms Takaichi as the pair sat down for discussions with their delegations at Tokyo’s Akasaka Palace.
[ Trump v Xi: Who holds the stronger hand?Opens in new window ]
Ms Takaichi repeatedly referenced Abe’s affection for Mr Trump and gifted him his putter enclosed in a glass case, a golf bag signed by Japanese major winner Hideki Matsuyama and a gold-leaf golf ball, according to photos posted on X by Mr Trump’s assistant Margo Martin.
Abe, who was assassinated in 2022, was the first foreign leader to meet Mr Trump after his 2016 election victory and the pair went on to forge a close bond over several rounds of golf in the United States and Japan.
Over lunch, the Japanese leader presented Mr Trump with a map of major investments Japanese firms have made in the United States since his last visit in 2009.
At least 10 Japanese companies are eyeing more than $400 billion of US investments in areas such as energy and artificial intelligence, which the two governments are set to announce later on Tuesday, public broadcaster NHK reported.
Mr Trump also praised Japan’s efforts to purchase more US defence equipment, while Ms Takaichi said Mr Trump’s role in securing ceasefires between Cambodia and Thailand, and Israel and Palestinian militants, were “unprecedented” achievements.
The leaders then signed an agreement to support the supply of critical minerals and rare earths, as the countries seek to wean reliance off China’s chokehold on the materials crucial for a wide range of products from smartphones to fighter jets.
The deal aims to jointly identify projects of interest in areas such as magnets and batteries over the next six months and work together to develop stockpiles of key minerals among other measures.
After lunch, Mr Trump met with relatives of people abducted by North Korea in the 1960s and 1970s to train its spies and their relatives. While some were later repatriated, Japan continues to press Pyongyang for a full accounting of all the abductees and the return of any who remain alive, a cause championed by Abe.
“The United States is with them all the way,” Mr Trump, who has repeatedly said he is open to meeting North Korea’s reclusive leader Kim Jong-un during his Asia visit, told reporters after greeting the families.
The US leader began his five-day visit to Asia in Malaysia on Sunday before travelling to Japan late on Monday and heading straight to the Imperial Palace for a meeting with Japanese Emperor Naruhito.
He hopes to cap off his trip, his longest overseas journey since returning to the White House in January, by agreeing a trade war truce with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday.
Ms Takaichi’s efforts to invoke Abe’s legacy to forge a bond with Mr Trump could help bolster her weak political position at home and help her navigate Mr Trump’s at times erratic decision-making, analysts said.
Though she has seen an increase in public support since becoming prime minister, her coalition government is two votes shy of a majority in parliament’s lower house.
US secretary of defence Pete Hegseth is due to hold talks with his Japanese counterpart Shinjiro Koizumi on Wednesday.
Mr Trump will meet business leaders in Tokyo later on Tuesday, before travelling on Wednesday to South Korea where he will meet president Lee Jae Myung ahead of his Thursday summit with Mr Xi. – Reuters
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025
