INTERVIEW: Abe Protege a Boon for Ties with Trump: U.S. Expert

Washington, Oct. 23 (Jiji Press)–The fact that new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was close to the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will work in her favor in building ties with U.S. President Donald Trump, Jeffrey Hornung, senior political scientist at U.S. think tank Rand Corp., said. “We know that Trump deeply, deeply respects Abe and thinks really positively about Abe,” Hornung said in an interview. “The fact that she was so close with Abe and like a protege of Abe…works in her favor,” he said of Takaichi. “Just coming into the room with him, knowing that, that already breaks the ice.” Takaichi’s inauguration as prime minister on Tuesday has changed the purpose of Trump’s upcoming visit to Japan, he said, while pointing out that there is very little that Takaichi can do before her meeting with the president. “What they can do is form a working relationship with Trump and lay out, maybe commonalities, common objectives that they’re hoping to achieve over the next coming years,” Hornung said. “For this alliance to work, they need to have a working relationship.” Trump is scheduled to visit Japan for three days through Wednesday, his first trip to the country since his return to the White House. Hornung said that Takaichi is also helped by the fact that she views China as a “challenge” and that she wants to increase defense spending. “The conditions are there for a positive first meeting.” He suggested that Japanese political instability can have implications for the alliance, pointing out that short tenures for prime ministers prevent Japan from having a visible foreign policy presence as leaders need to focus on domestic issues. Takaichi is “in this really tricky position where maybe she has to govern by thinking about what she wants to do and what she needs to do,” he said. “What she wants to do is probably the defense stuff. What she needs to do is the economic stuff.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]