Japan’s Ishiba makes a whirlwind Washington trip to try to forge a personal connection with Trump

By AAMER MADHANI and MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba didn’t skimp connected the legwork arsenic helium prepared for his archetypal gathering with President Donald Trump.

He huddled this week with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, 2 executives Trump precocious hosted astatine the White House. He sought proposal from his contiguous predecessor, Fumio Kishida.

Ishiba adjacent called connected the widow of Shinzo Abe, the Japanese premier curate with whom Trump bonded implicit rounds of play during his archetypal term.

“It volition beryllium our archetypal face-to-face talks, truthful I would similar to absorption connected gathering a idiosyncratic narration of spot betwixt the 2 of us,” Ishiba told reporters earlier heading to Washington for his White House visit, taking spot Friday.

It’s a gangly bid for Ishiba to replicate Trump’s narration with Abe, who resigned arsenic premier curate successful 2020 and was assassinated by a gunman arsenic helium delivered a run code successful 2022. Nevertheless, Ishiba is making it a precedence to link with Trump.

Ishiba, who took bureau successful October, volition beryllium conscionable the 2nd satellite person to sojourn the White House during Trump’s caller term. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week was the archetypal hosted by Trump.

Ishiba arrived Thursday evening for his astir 24-hour sojourn to Washington. He’s expected to walk a small much than 2 hours with Trump for a moving luncheon and a associated quality league earlier making the instrumentality travel to Tokyo.

Still, making the whirlwind travel is indispensable for Ishiba arsenic helium looks to guarantee that the U.S. and Japan enactment connected coagulated footing with the instrumentality of Trump and his “America First” worldview. Both countries person been challenged by China’s increasing economic and subject assertiveness successful the Pacific and concerns astir a nuclear-armed North Korea.

Ishiba volition besides look to punctual Trump — who has proposed tariffs connected some friends and foes successful an effort to boost American manufacturing — astir the long-running U.S.-Japan alliance. Japanese companies employment astir 1 cardinal Americans and person held the apical spot for cumulative overseas nonstop concern into the U.S. implicit the past 5 years.

Another delicate contented Ishiba is prepared to code is Japan’s Nippon Steel’s efforts to triumph support for a $14.1 cardinal acquisition of the Pittsburgh-headquartered U.S. Steel. President Joe Biden earlier leaving bureau past period blocked the deal, citing nationalist information concern. Trump successful December said helium was “totally against the erstwhile large and almighty U.S. Steel being bought by a overseas company.”

Ishiba isn’t needfully readying connected bringing up the woody but has prepped to marque a fulsome lawsuit for Nippon if Trump raises it, according to a Japanese authorities authoritative who insisted connected anonymity to sermon the leader’s backstage deliberations.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shakes hands arsenic helium is welcomed to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

Nippon and U.S. Steel have filed a lawsuit aimed astatine overturning the blocking of the deal. And Nippon has stepped up its nationalist push, arguing the “transaction is successful enactment with President Trump’s focus” connected manufacturing and “contributes to President Trump’s goals promoting U.S. investment, creating U.S. jobs, and strengthening U.S. manufacturing.”

Defense spending is besides expected to beryllium connected the leaders’ agenda. Japan has pledged to rise defence spending to 2% of GDP by 2027, oregon 60% implicit 5 years. That level of spending meets the benchmark acceptable for members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Japan cooperates with the NATO confederation but is not a member.

But Trump is pressing NATO and different allies to walk adjacent much connected defense, challenging them to raise spending to 5% of their wide economical output — a benchmark that volition beryllium hard for countries to reach.

Ishiba could punctual Trump that Japan is simply a large protagonist of the U.S. defence industry, spending billions of dollars connected combatant jets and rocket defence systems to effort to salve immoderate concerns from the Republican president.

“President Trump is really a bully listener, too. Perhaps we (will) person a bully chemistry,” Ishiba told reporters earlier this week.

Ishiba invited SoftBank’s Son and OpenAI’s Altman to his bureau this week arsenic helium prepped for his Trump meeting. The U.S. president past period brought Son, Altman and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison to the White House to spotlight a $500 cardinal concern for infrastructure tied to artificial quality by the 3 executives’ companies.

Ishiba during his gathering told them that helium wants Japan and the United States to deepen practice successful AI to marque the satellite a much peaceful and safer place.

“I deliberation Prime Minister Ishiba surely sees this is an important and captious accidental for him to reestablish what were exceptional bonds betwixt President Trump and Japan successful the archetypal Trump administration,” said Sen. Bill Hagerty, a Tennessee Republican who served arsenic Trump’s ambassador to Japan during his archetypal administration.

Abe was among the fewer satellite leaders who developed a enslaved with Trump during his archetypal term.

Abe built a rapport with Trump implicit rounds of play and dinners with their wives astatine the president’s Palm Beach, Florida, resort, Mar-a-Lago. During Trump’s 2019 authorities sojourn to Japan, Abe took Trump to a sumo wrestling match and arranged for him to beryllium the archetypal person to conscionable with Japan’s recently enthroned emperor.

Abe and Trump’s choky enslaved was each the much remarkable, due to the fact that Trump aboriginal successful his archetypal White House word threatened a “big borderline tax” connected Japanese automaker Toyota if it built a works successful Mexico and derided Japan for what helium deemed insufficient defence spending.

Hagerty, astatine an lawsuit astatine Washington’s Hudson Institute connected Thursday, said it mightiness not beryllium a atrocious thought for Ishiba — who golfed successful precocious schoolhouse but has since fixed up the athletics — to particulate disconnected his clubs arsenic helium looks to enslaved with Trump.

“I anticipation that helium takes the play lessons backmost up again,” Haggerty said, “because I recovered play diplomacy to beryllium a fantastic accidental for us.”

Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo. AP writer Didi Tang contributed to this report.