US President Donald Trump effusively praised Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s first female leader, in Tokyo on Tuesday, hailing the new prime minister’s promise to accelerate military development while signing rare earth and trade deals.
Takaichi, who took office a week ago, is a protégé of Shinzo Abe, Trump’s ally and golf buddy, who was assassinated in 2022. She repeatedly invoked that legacy with gifts and references to the close ties between the two men, and applauded Trump’s effort to resolve global conflicts.
Both governments published a list of projects in the areas of energy, artificial intelligence and critical minerals in which Japanese companies are considering investments of up to $400 billion in the United States.
Earlier this year, Tokyo pledged to provide $550 billion in strategic U.S. investments, loans and guarantees as part of a deal to get an extension of Trump’s harsh import tariffs.
These gestures could temper Trump’s demands that Tokyo invest more in security in the face of an increasingly aggressive China, demands that Takaichi tried to avoid by promising to accelerate plans to increase defense spending to 2% of GDP.
“From what I know of Shinzo and others, you will be one of the great prime ministers,” Trump told Takaichi as they spoke accompanied by his advisers at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo. Becoming Japan’s first female prime minister was “a huge achievement,” Trump added.
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Takaichi shows companies that will invest in the US
Takaichi repeatedly referred to Abe’s affection for Trump and gifted him the former prime minister’s putter encased in crystal, a golf bag signed by Japanese major winner Hideki Matsuyama, and a gold golf ball.
Trump also met Abe’s widow, Akie Abe, who gave him a painting with the word PEACE written in large gold letters.
Abe was the first foreign leader to meet with Trump following his 2016 election victory, and the two forged a close relationship over several rounds of golf in the United States and Japan.
Over a lunch of American rice and beef, and vegetables from Nara, Takaichi’s hometown, she presented Trump with a map of the major investments Japanese companies have made in the United States since his last visit in 2019.
Among the Japanese companies on the list of possible future investors were Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, SoftBank, Hitachi, Murata Manufacturing and Panasonic, among others.
Japanese automaker Toyota will also open auto plants in the United States worth $10 billion, Trump said.
Trump said Japan also plans to buy Ford’s rugged F-150 pickup truck, now rarely seen on the country’s narrow roads, a symbol of how far Tokyo is willing to go to curry favor.
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Trump praised Japan’s efforts to purchase more American defense equipment, while Takaichi said his role in securing the ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand, and Israel and Palestinian militants, was an “unprecedented” achievement.
They signed an agreement to bolster supplies of critical minerals and rare earths, as their nations seek to reduce China’s dominance in some key electronic component areas.
After lunch, Trump met with relatives of people abducted by North Korea in the 1960s and 1970s. Although some were later repatriated, Japan continues to pressure Pyongyang to account for all those abducted and repatriate those who survive, a cause championed by Abe.
Trump, who reiterated his willingness to meet with reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his five-day visit to Asia, said the United States was with the families “every step of the way.”
The American leader began his trip in Malaysia on Sunday, before traveling to Japan late on Monday for a royal welcome at the Imperial Palace.
He hopes to cap his trip, his longest overseas since returning to the White House in January, by agreeing to a trade truce with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea on Thursday.
With information from Reuters
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