For Trump’s trip to Japan, PM Abe piles on the flattery
WASHINGTON — Not every foreign leader gets invited into the White House for a slice of birthday cake. But Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is about as close to a family friend as anyone — who really wants to make a trade deal with President Donald Trump — can get.
When Melania Trump’s 49th birthday fell during Abe’s visit to Washington last month, the prime minister and his wife, Akie Abe, were invited to the cakecutting.
Talk of ongoing trade disagreements and the threat of North Korean missiles were on the agenda, but so was the Trumps’ trip to Japan, a four-day state visit that begins Saturday.
Now that the first couple is headed to Tokyo, Abe will return the hospitality.
Significant challenges lie ahead, especially as the United States and Japan begin thorny trade talks and Trump confronts new provocations from North Korea.
So to keep close ties with Trump — Abe’s occasional golf buddy — the prime minister has planned a visit dripping in a level of ceremony that money can’t buy.
All of Abe’s plans are meant to remind Trump, the leader of Japan’s most important ally, not to forget about his closest friend in Asia.
There will be sumo wrestling with a customized Trump trophy. There will be a meeting with the new Japanese emperor. There will be a state banquet.
For Abe, the flattery is the product of close study of a president who sees diplomacy as an entirely personal endeavour.
But two and a half years into the relationship, some observers at home and abroad are questioning whether the overtures have paid off.
With Japan’s economy in a slowdown, Abe is pursuing a bilateral trade deal with Trump and is trying to ward off a longstanding threat by the Trump administration to enact damaging auto tariffs.
White House officials have said not to expect such a trade-related accord to come out of Trump’s visit.
Abe is “just trying to entertain President Trump and make his visit a political spectacle,” said Jiro Yamaguchi, a political science prof at Hosei University.