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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
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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.
