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Moshi Tora: Why Japan is losing sleep over the US election
The spectre of Trump 2.0 aside, rising America First sentiments are already a worry ahead of the Kishida-Biden talks this week.
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Japanese PM Fumio Kishida (right) and US President Joe Biden at a trilateral summit at Camp David, Maryland, on Aug 18, 2023.
PHOTO: REUTERS
William Pesek
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, beset by scandals, inflation and recession fears, is fighting for his political life. Yet all that the Tokyo establishment seems keen to talk about is a politician 12,000km away.
Fears of a second Donald Trump presidency in the US are triggering low-grade panic in a Japanese capital still suffering PTSD from his 2017-2021 trade wars. Now Trump, from his Mar-a-Lago bunker in southern Florida, is threatening 60 per cent tariffs on all goods from China, Japan’s top trading partner. And a 100 per cent tax on certain auto imports.
