According to U.S. media reports, just days after taking office, Japan's new leader will face a series of consecutive diplomatic challenges, including a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Tokyo, which is sandwiched between Asian regional summits in Malaysia and South Korea.
Prime Minister Sanae Tōdō, who has limited foreign affairs experience, will have to deal with Trump's demands and unpredictability, as well as China's vigilance towards her strong support for military expansion and her right-wing views on Japan's invasion of China during World War II and before.
She will arrive in Malaysia on Saturday to hold talks with Southeast Asian leaders, then return to Japan for a meeting with Trump, and subsequently head to South Korea for the APEC summit this weekend. In her first press conference as prime minister, she described her schedule as "very tight" and said it was a valuable opportunity to meet with other regional leaders.
The United States has long been Japan's most important ally and protector, but like other NATO allies, Trump has demanded that Japan invest more in defense. Tariffs on imported goods imposed by Trump have also impacted the Japanese economy. Tōdō pledged on Friday to accelerate the implementation of plans to increase defense spending to 2% of Japan's GDP. She stated that this goal would be achieved by March 2027, which is earlier than the previously set 2027 target. "The military activities and other actions of China, North Korea, and Russia in the surrounding areas of Japan are a serious concern," she said in a policy speech in parliament. Trump may focus more on investment demands in Japan and South Korea, particularly factories that can create jobs for American workers.
As a political disciple of former Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, Tōdō may benefit from this, as Abe seemed to gain Trump's trust during Trump's first term as president.
Her views on wartime history align with those of Abe, and she may even be more intense. Before becoming prime minister, she was a member of conservative legislators and regularly visited the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo to pay homage to Japanese war dead. These visits have angered China and South Korea because the shrine enshrines former leaders who were convicted of war crimes during World War II.
Tōdō notably missed the autumn regular rites earlier this month, when she seemed likely to become Japan's leader. Her current priority is to maintain political stability, and experts believe she will avoid expressing her views on the war and stay away from the Yasukuni Shrine to avoid disputes that could destabilize her fragile and untested coalition government. "It would be extremely foolish for her to create a major diplomatic incident in her first year by visiting the Yasukuni Shrine," said Gerald Curtis, a Japan politics expert at Columbia University. He said her right-wing supporters know she stands with them, so she doesn't need to visit the shrine to prove herself to them.
A Chinese expert on Japan also agrees. Lian Degui from Shanghai University of International Business and Economics pointed out that while Abe deepened military cooperation with the United States and pushed for an unsuccessful constitutional amendment effort - another issue of great concern to China - he still maintained ties with China. "If she can learn from Abe, bilateral relations will not deteriorate," he said. "Abe rarely visited the Yasukuni Shrine during his tenure as prime minister, which is the basis for bilateral relations."
Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7565114230471393792/
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