Trump bonds with Japan’s leader over baseball and US beef

By Katie Rogers, Erica L. Green and Javier C. Hernánde

TOKYO – Inside a gold-drenched palace in Tokyo on Tuesday (28) morning, President Donald Trump heaped praise on Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s new prime minister, telling her that their countries were “allies at the strongest level” and vowing to come to Japan’s aide on “any favours you need”.

Hours later, delivering a speech to hundreds of US troops aboard an aircraft carrier stationed near Tokyo, Trump stood side by side with Takaichi, saying that the two had become “very close friends” and adding, “This woman is a winner”.

The joint appearance, which bore all of the markings of one of Trump’s political rallies, was the capstone of a day in which Trump and Takaichi found an easy rapport — watching snippets of the World Series on television, eating lunch at Akasaka Palace in central Tokyo and sharing stories about their mutual friend, Shinzo Abe, the former premier who was assassinated in 2022.

But the series of meetings between Trump and Takaichi, a hard-line conservative who last week became the first woman to serve as Japan’s prime minister, delivered little in the way of solutions to some of the contentious trade issues between Washington and Japan.

The leaders signed two vaguely worded agreements — one declaring a ‘new golden age of the US-Japan alliance’, and another to cooperate on expanding the supply chain for rare earth metals. With both countries essentially agreeing to keep negotiating, Takaichi bought more time to strategize over how to spend the $550 billion her debt-strapped government has promised to invest as part of an earlier trade deal with the United States.

In front of the troops, Trump, who has been pressing Japan to spend more on defence, said he had approved an order of missiles to supply Japanese F-35 jets.

“I’ve just approved the first batch of missiles,” Trump said to the crowd of service members Tuesday afternoon. “I just want to tell Madam Prime Minister, they’ve been waiting for those missiles, and we got them here right away.”

During his speech at the Yokosuka Naval Base, the president said Toyota would be investing “over $10 billion” in American plants, but otherwise the day was short on details. There was no public talk about the major point of contention between the two countries: the details of how Japan intends to spend its promised $550 billion investment into the United States. That pledge was made as part of the trade deal, and in return Japan received a 15% tariff on its exports — a lower rate than Trump had initially threatened.

Instead, both leaders focused more on what they had in common: A warm relationship with Abe. Takaichi is a protégé of his, and on Tuesday she seemed to have some success in using Abe’s playbook to handle a mercurial US president. She even used the same interpreter Abe had deployed: a Foreign Ministry official that Trump had seemed fond of.

“They had no issues with chemistry,” said Tetsuo Kotani, a professor at Meikai University in Japan.

During Trump’s visit to Tokyo in 2019, Abe treated the president to a round of golf, barbecue and a sumo match. Within minutes of meeting Trump, the new leader showed that she had closely studied Abe’s overtures. During the visit, she gave Trump a golf bag signed by Hideki Matsuyama, a Japanese professional golfer, and a putter that had belonged to Abe, along with a map of places within the United States that the Japanese plan to invest money, according to the White House.

On his way into Tokyo, Trump had kept expectations for the visit reasonably low, telling reporters that he had plans to “just announce a great friendship” while in the Japanese capital.

He seemed to have achieved that during a visit to the Akasaka Palace, where he and Takaichi bonded while catching a bit of the game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers (a Japanese favorite and current home of their star player, Shohei Ohtani). Later, the pair spoke warmly of each other before using gold pens to sign ‘JAPAN IS BACK’ baseball hats.

The two leaders met beneath a grand ceiling featuring a painting of Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn. They were joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

“Prime Minister Abe often told me about your dynamic diplomacy,” Takaichi told Trump during their meeting, citing the president’s work to broker a ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand, and his work to do the same between Israel and Hamas. “I myself am so impressed and inspired by you, Mr. President.”

Later, the pair toasted each other at lunch, where American rice was served alongside American beef — culinary reminders of the pressure the Trump administration has put on the Japanese to buy more American-made goods. Trump signed the menus afterward for the Japanese delegation, the White House said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Takaichi had also nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize. The president, who talks frequently about his work to end global conflicts, is fixated on winning the award. The Japanese government said it had no comment on whether it had nominated Trump, based on the Nobel committee’s principle of not making disclosures about the process.

Abe had reportedly done the same during Trump’s first term.

For his part, Trump struck a magnanimous tone with Takaichi, praising her for becoming the first woman to be elected prime minister of Japan, saying it was a “big deal”.

Trump promised that the United States would offer its help if she ever needed it — a sentiment at odds with his administration’s drastic reduction in aid and assistance to other countries.

“I want to just let you know, anytime you have any question, any doubt, anything you want, any favours you need, anything I can do to help Japan, we will be there,” Trump told Takaichi. “We are an ally at the strongest level.”

Later in the day, Washington and Tokyo said they would work together on shipbuilding. But there were no announcements on how Japan would invest in the United States, a key part of the trade deal the two countries reached in July.

The agreement covering critical minerals and rare earths, a sector dominated by China, came after Beijing tightened export controls on rare earth minerals, essential components of everything from semiconductor chips to fighter jets.

As part of his six-day swing through Asia, Trump is scheduled to meet with Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, in South Korea on Thursday.

At the Yokosuka Naval Base, Trump reiterated the history of Takaichi’s election. Takaichi jumped up and down and pumped her fist.

Taking the podium, Takaichi said Japan would commit to building up its end of a joint military alliance designed to counter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific, particularly in the South China Sea.

She recalled an appearance at Yokosuka, six years earlier, by Trump and Abe, who promised at the time to work together to jointly bolster their respective military presences in the region.

“I have renewed my determination to carry forward that resolve,” she said, “and to make the Indo-Pacific free and open, so that it will serve as the foundation of peace and prosperity for the entire region”.

-New York Times