TOKYO: U.S. President Donald Trump received a royal welcome on Monday in Japan, the latest leg of a five-day Asia trip which he hopes to cap with an agreement on a trade war truce with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump, making his longest journey abroad since taking office in January, announced a flurry of deals on trade and critical minerals with four Southeast Asian nations during the first stop in Malaysia and is set to meet Xi in South Korea on Thursday.
Negotiators from the world’s top two economies hashed out a framework on Sunday for a deal to pause steeper American tariffs and Chinese rare earths export controls, U.S. officials said. The news sent Asian stocks soaring to record peaks.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for President Xi and I think we’re going to come away with a deal,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One before landing in the Japanese capital Tokyo.
TRUMP MEETS JAPANESE EMPEROR
Wearing a gold tie and blue suit, Trump gave a few fist pumps before his helicopter whisked him off for a scenic night tour of Tokyo, several of its towers lit up in the red, white and blue of the American flag.
He later went to the Imperial Palace, where he shook hands and posed for photographs with Japanese Emperor Naruhito.
Thousands of police were guarding Tokyo after a knife-wielding man was arrested on Friday outside the U.S. embassy, and an anti-Trump protest was planned in downtown Shinjuku.
Trump has already won a $550-billion investment pledge from Tokyo in exchange for respite from punishing import tariffs.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Japanese counterpart Ryosei Akazawa, architects of the tariff deal agreed in July, discussed power grids as being a potential investment area over a sushi lunch in Tokyo earlier on Monday, local media reported.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is hoping to further impress Trump on Tuesday with promises to purchase U.S. pickup trucks, soybeans and gas, and announce an agreement on shipbuilding, sources with knowledge of the plans told media.
Takaichi, who became Japan’s first female premier last week, told Trump that strengthening their countries’ alliance was her “top priority” in a telephone call on Saturday.
Trump said he was looking forward to meeting Takaichi, a close ally of his late friend and golfing partner, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, adding: “I think she’s going to be great.”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama at her ministry on Monday.
Their first in-person meeting touched upon the Takaichi government’s proactive fiscal policy and Japan’s investment pledge, and there were no talks directly on the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy, Katayama told reporters.
TRADE AND SECURITY ON AGENDA
Trump was the first foreign leader to meet Naruhito after he came to the throne in 2019, continuing an imperial line that some say is the world’s oldest hereditary monarchy.
Naruhito’s role is symbolic, and the key diplomacy will take place with Takaichi on Tuesday at the nearby Akasaka Palace, where he met Abe six years ago and will be welcomed by a military honour guard.
Among the investment pledges, the two countries will sign a memorandum of understanding on investment in shipbuilding, a source with knowledge of the plans said.
Takaichi is expected to reassure Trump that Tokyo is willing to do more on security after telling lawmakers on Friday she plans to accelerate Japan’s biggest defence build-up since World War Two.
Japan hosts the largest concentration of U.S. military power abroad. Trump has said previously Tokyo is not spending enough to defend its islands from an increasingly assertive China.
While Takaichi has said she will speed plans to boost defence spending to 2% of GDP, she may struggle to commit Japan to any further increases that Trump seeks, as her ruling coalition does not have a majority in parliament.
Trump is due to leave on Wednesday for Gyeongju in South Korea, where he will hold talks with President Lee Jae Myung. Bessent said the overall framework of a deal with South Korea was also done but would not be finalised this week.
Trump’s expected meeting with Xi on Thursday will come after Washington and Beijing have raised tariffs on each other’s exports and threatened to halt trade involving critical minerals and technologies.
Neither side expects a breakthrough that would restore the terms of trade that existed before Trump’s return to power.
-Tim Kelly
