Abe’s picture of ties overly rosy

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe began a three-day visit to the United States on Tuesday and met with President Donald Trump in his Mar-a-Lago estate. Since Trump entered office, Abe and Trump have met face-to-face seven times and spoken by phone more than 20 times, mostly at Abe’s request. Abe’s all-out efforts to engage with Trump have succeeded in getting him Trump’s reaffirmation of some commitments his predecessor made to Japan and Trump treating him as a “confidant”.

However, the White House under Trump’s presidency has also shown that relations between Japan and the United States are not as good as they may appear on the surface. The Trump administration has not kept its commitment that the US, Japan and the Republic of Korea should have a consensus on the Korea Peninsula issue and Japan seems sidelined in the flurry of recent diplomatic efforts regarding talks with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Japan is also not included in the list of the US’ allies that have been exempted from the high tariffs the US is imposing on imports of steel and aluminum, which has been an embarrassment to Abe and Japan given Abe’s efforts to curry favor with Trump.

In his latest visit to the US, Abe surely wants to gain reassurance from Trump that Tokyo’s interests will be taken into consideration in any direct talks between Washington and Pyongyang and is looking for more US support for his government’s efforts to find and rescue Japanese kidnap victims believed to be held in the DPRK. He will also seek to acquire for Japan the same trade treatment as other allies of the US.

It is predictable that Abe will continue to portray the two countries’ relations in a flattering light and play up a personal friendship with Trump. But the reality is, it is proving difficult for him to establish such good personal rapport with Trump as his predecessors Nakasone Yasuhiro and Junichiro Koizumi built with former US presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush respectively.