Trump to talk trade, security with Japan’s new leader Takaichi

TOKYO – US President Donald Trump will meet Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in Tokyo on Oct 28 for talks on trade and security, a week after the hardline conservative became

Japan’s first female leader

and vowed to accelerate a military build-up.

Ms Takaichi is expected to offer a package of US investments in a US$550 billion (S$712.7 billion) deal agreed to in 2025, including cooperation in shipbuilding, sources familiar with the preparations previously told Reuters.

She will also seek to please the leader of Japan’s trade partner and security ally with purchases of pickup trucks, soya beans and natural gas, the sources said.

While Mr Trump has previously said that Tokyo is not spending enough to defend its islands from an increasingly assertive China, Ms Takaichi is not expected to commit to new defence spending targets beyond the 2 per cent of gross domestic product pledged by her predecessors.

Mr Trump, who

met Japan’s emperor on Oct 27

, will hold summit talks and have lunch with Ms Takaichi at the Akasaka Palace, before heading to a major US naval base south of the capital.

Mr Trump was last at the palace, an ornate residence built in a European style, in 2019 for talks with late prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated in 2022.

“I look forward to meeting the new prime minister,” Mr Trump told reporters on his flight from Malaysia, after attending an Asean summit.

“I hear phenomenal things. She was a great ally and friend of Shinzo Abe, who was my friend.”

During their meeting, Ms Takaichi will present Mr Trump with one of Mr Abe’s golf clubs in a gesture meant to rekindle the close bond the two leaders had formed on golf courses in Japan and the United States, a source familiar with the plan told Reuters.

The sources sought anonymity as they were not allowed to speak to the media.

A similar close relationship with Mr Trump could help Ms Takaichi bolster her weak political position at home.

Though she has seen a surge in public support since becoming prime minister, her coalition government is two votes shy of a majority in Parliament’s Lower House.

On the afternoon of Oct 28, Mr Trump will visit the US naval base in Yokosuka near Tokyo, which is home to the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, a symbol of US military power in the region. Ms Takaichi will join Mr Trump, domestic media said.

Mr Trump will meet business leaders in Tokyo, before travelling on Oct 29 to South Korea. In talks there with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Mr Trump said he hopes to seal a trade deal between the world’s two biggest economies. REUTERS