- Japan talks about the need to talk with re-elected Trump
- Japan has been shedding its strict pacifist stance
- Japan is already doubling its military spending to the NATO standard of two percent of GDP
Japan talks about the need to talk with re-elected Trump
Japan's prime minister said Friday he will have "frank discussions" with US president-elect Donald Trump, saying cooperation between them is vital to ensuring a "free and open Pacific."
"I will have frank discussions with incoming president Trump and lead the alliance to new heights," Shigeru Ishiba said in parliament in a key policy address.
"Naturally, the US has its own national interest and Japan has its own national interest. That is why I think exchanging opinions frankly and enhancing the national interests of both countries in a synergetic way will help realize a free and open Indo-Pacific," he said.
Beijing has displayed increasingly assertive behavior in territorial disputes in the Asia-Pacific region, including around Taiwan.
China claims the South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars of trade passes annually, almost in its entirety, while Tokyo and Beijing are also at loggerheads over disputed Japan-controlled islands in the East China Sea.
Tokyo is also alarmed by nuclear-armed North Korea's expansion of its missile activities. Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his first term.
Japan has been shedding its strict pacifist stance
Ishiba, a confessed defence "geek", has called for the creation of an Asian NATO with its principle of an attack on one being an attack on all.
"The Japan-US security alliance is the foundation of Japan's diplomacy and security," Ishiba said.
"At the same time, however, the United States receives great strategic benefits from the existence of facilities and areas (controlled by) US Forces in Japan," he said.
In Trump's first term, Japan's then-premier Shinzo Abe appeared to have warm personal relations with the US president, playing golf together several times.
After Trump's election win, Ishiba and the US president-elect had what the Japanese premier called a "very friendly" phone conversation earlier this month.
Key allies Japan and the United States are each other's top foreign investors, and 54,000 US military personnel are stationed in Japan, mostly in Okinawa east of Taiwan.
Japan has been shedding its strict pacifist stance, moving to obtain "counterstrike" capabilities. US President Joe Biden and Ishiba's predecessor Fumio Kishida announced a "new era" in defence in April.
Japan is already doubling its military spending to the NATO standard of two percent of GDP
But Trump's "America First" approach could mean that he will provide less cash in his second term and press Japan to do more.
Trump also caused panic among some of the biggest US trading partners on Monday when he said he would impose 25 percent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports and 10 percent on goods from China.
Many Japanese exporters, including carmakers Toyota and Honda, have plants in Mexico and in Canada. Both firms' shares fell sharply this week.
Japanese government officials have declined to comment on Trump's tariff threats and Ishiba did not address the issue directly on Friday.
Based on AFP reports
