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What security pledges Trump is actually promising Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 2: The US President Donald Trump has delivered a strong show
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  Speaker 2: of support for Japan. On the second leg of his
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  Speaker 2: Asia tour, Trump had warm words for the country's new
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  Speaker 2: Prime Minister, Sanai Takeichi, who's only a few weeks only
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  Speaker 2: one week rather into her new job. The demonstrative backing
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  Speaker 2: for Tokyo comes ahead of a meeting scheduled later this
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  Speaker 2: week between Trump and China's President Shijiping.
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  Speaker 3: At the Akasaka Palace, Trump is welcomed with full military honors,
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  Speaker 3: a show of ceremony for Japan's most high profile ally.
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  Speaker 3: Just days into her historic role as Japan's first female
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  Speaker 3: Prime Minister, Sanai Takaichi greeted Trump with smiles and praise
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  Speaker 3: as the two signed what they called the start of
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  Speaker 3: a golden age in US Japan relations, agreements on minerals
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  Speaker 3: and rare earths aimed at reducing US reliance on China.
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  Speaker 1: T will be a relationship that will be stronger than
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  Speaker 1: ever before, and I look forward to working with you
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  Speaker 1: and on behalf of our country. I want to just
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  Speaker 1: let you know anytime you have any question, any doubt,
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  Speaker 1: anything you want, any favors you need, anything I can
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  Speaker 1: do to help Japan. We will be there. We are
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  Speaker 1: an ally at the strongest level.
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  Speaker 3: Japan, meanwhile, is looking to strengthen its defense capabilities and
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  Speaker 3: committed to acquiring missiles from the US under a contract
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  Speaker 3: signed last year. I am determined to restore a strong
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  Speaker 3: Japanese diplomacy in order to fully protect Japan's national interests.
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  Speaker 3: I'm ready to promote further collaboration with the US to
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  Speaker 3: achieve a free and open Indo Pacific. Trump and Takaichi
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  Speaker 3: visited the US naval base in Yokosuka, near to home
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  Speaker 3: to the nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington, part
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  Speaker 3: of the Pentagon's powerful presence in the region. As Tokyo
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  Speaker 3: in Washington celebrated an old alliance with a new kind
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  Speaker 3: of charm.
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  Speaker 2: Jeffrey Hall is a lecturer at the Canada University of
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  Speaker 2: International Studies in Japan and is joining us now from Tokyo.
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  Speaker 2: Good to see you. We've seen lots of warm praise,
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  Speaker 2: both sides heeping praise on each other. What do you
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  Speaker 2: make of the dynamic between sanaetaki Ichi and Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 4: Well, Anya, I think that this is a fantastic dynamic.
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  Speaker 4: They seem to be getting on very well, but it's
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  Speaker 4: mainly due to two factors. The first being that Takaichi
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  Speaker 4: is seen as the protege of Shinzo Abe, who is
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  Speaker 4: a great friend of Trump's, and Trump really sees her
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  Speaker 4: as someone similar to Abe. And the second factor is
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  Speaker 4: that Takaichi has inherited a trade deal that has already
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  Speaker 4: been decided, and so any implementation of this trade deal
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  Speaker 4: will be credited to her. Even though she's been a
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  Speaker 4: week on the job, She's got a portfolio of policies
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  Speaker 4: that were probably made before last week that she can
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  Speaker 4: now announce as great successes, and Trump seems very pleased
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  Speaker 4: with it.
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  Speaker 2: So it's a relationship that started off with a good foundation. However,
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  Speaker 2: Taikichi has said that Japan is currently facing an unprecedented
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  Speaker 2: severe security environment. Tell us more about Japan's security concerns
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  Speaker 2: right now.
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  Speaker 4: Japan's security concerns are three countries. The first one and
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  Speaker 4: most important is China, a very large country. It has
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  Speaker 4: a territorial dispute with Japan. The second is North Korea
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  Speaker 4: with its nuclear program and its missiles, and the third
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  Speaker 4: is Russia, which also has a territorial dispute with Japan.
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  Speaker 4: And Takaichi is very hawkish on security issues. You could
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  Speaker 4: even say she considers these countries sort of like an
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  Speaker 4: axis of evil, and she really wants Japan to prepare
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  Speaker 4: its defenses and she wants America to be there if
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  Speaker 4: there is a crisis. And so this is why she's
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  Speaker 4: trying so hard to flatter Trump, to treat Trump so
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  Speaker 4: special when he's in Japan, so that he will like
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  Speaker 4: her and if there is a crisis, he will come
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  Speaker 4: and help Japan.
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  Speaker 2: And we've been hearing Trump talk up the ties, the
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  Speaker 2: strength of the alliance between the US and Japan, But
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  Speaker 2: what kind of actual security pledges is the US willing
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  Speaker 2: to offer Japan.
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  Speaker 4: Well, as we saw in the earlier clip, he basically said,
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  Speaker 4: I'll do anything for you. But the US Japan Security
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  Speaker 4: Treaty already promises that the United States will defend Japan's
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  Speaker 4: territory if Japan is attacked, But that really only depends
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  Speaker 4: on whether the president is willing to act. If there
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  Speaker 4: is an attack, they could break the treaty. And so
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  Speaker 4: Japan's a great fear for a long time, and especially
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  Speaker 4: when Trump is president, is that maybe if there is
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  Speaker 4: some kind of conflict with China over minor islands or
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  Speaker 4: something like that President Trump won't be willing to risk
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  Speaker 4: American lives to save Japan's territory.
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  Speaker 2: And then, of course there's China. Trump will be meeting
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  Speaker 2: with the Chinese president Ji Jimping later this week. Do
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  Speaker 2: you think Trump will remember any of the promises he's
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  Speaker 2: made to Japan during his meeting with.
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  Speaker 4: G Well, I hope he does, but I guess your
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  Speaker 4: guess is as good as mine. Really, he probably remembers
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  Speaker 4: that he has a commitment to defend Japan, but he's
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  Speaker 4: more of a deal maker. He thinks more in pragmatic
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  Speaker 4: terms economic terms. He's not someone like Takaichi who sees
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  Speaker 4: this kind of fundamental struggle between Japan and it's democracy
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  Speaker 4: and China and its militaristic authoritarian system that is basically
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  Speaker 4: an aggressor state. So who knows what Trump will agree
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  Speaker 4: with China, but I don't think that he's going to
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  Speaker 4: necessarily throw Japan under the bus.
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  Speaker 2: Jeffrey Hall from the Canada University of International Studies in Japan. Jeffrey,
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  Speaker 2: thank you so much for your time today.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you very much for more on this.
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  Speaker 5: We can speak now with journalist Sonya Blaska, who's been
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  Speaker 5: following this story. Sonya. This was the first meeting between
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  Speaker 5: Prime Minister Takachi President Trump. How did it go.
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  Speaker 1: So exceptionally well? Really seemed to have developed a rapport
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  Speaker 1: quite quickly, and there were a number of things that
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  Speaker 1: Zakaichi benefited from. One is obviously the great friendship and
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  Speaker 1: political relationship that one of her predecessors, Shinzo Abe, had
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  Speaker 1: with Trump, and that came up really early. She brought
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  Speaker 1: it up in like the third or fourth statement to
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  Speaker 1: Trump in their public meeting. And the second is also
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  Speaker 1: she spent a few years in the eighties in the
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  Speaker 1: US working there, so I think she also has a
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  Speaker 1: really good intercultural understanding of the US and that definitely helped.
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  Speaker 1: And she also understood how to appeal to Trump's ego
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  Speaker 1: so to speak, with a good amount of flattery hyperbole
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  Speaker 1: on both sides actually, and also a few gifts. So
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  Speaker 1: I think it could have hardly gone any better. With
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  Speaker 1: one exception, he stopped short of calling her Sonai by
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  Speaker 1: her first name, so Abbe reached that level. They were
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  Speaker 1: on Shinzo terms, so to speak. But for her that
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  Speaker 1: there might be once step up that we can might
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  Speaker 1: we might be able to see in the future.
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  Speaker 5: So the chemistry is good there. Let's talk a bit
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  Speaker 5: about substance. The two leaders have signed a deal on
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  Speaker 5: supplying rare earth minerals. What does this deal entail.
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  Speaker 1: Well, at the moment, it's a bit more formed than
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  Speaker 1: substance as well. It's more like a framework rather than
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  Speaker 1: a fully fleshed out deal. It's really a signal towards
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  Speaker 1: China showing Okay, we stand here together. We are trying
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  Speaker 1: to diversify our supply chains. We are looking for different
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  Speaker 1: sources of important materials needed for any sort of high
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  Speaker 1: tech these days. And the US really appreciate Japan as
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  Speaker 1: a sort of stable partner in the East Asian region,
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  Speaker 1: so this deal will further strengthen the mutual corporation in
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  Speaker 1: that area.
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  Speaker 5: Security is one of the main issues being discussed there.
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  Speaker 5: Understand what kind of assurance does Japan want from the US.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Japan knows that it can't really defend itself without
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  Speaker 1: the US, and in an increasingly installable and volatile environment
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  Speaker 1: in East Asia, a good and close to the relationship
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  Speaker 1: with the US is very necessary. I mean, they've had
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  Speaker 1: a strong relationship for a while, but it's gone up
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  Speaker 1: and down, and recently with Prime Minister's changing every year.
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  Speaker 1: It's I mean, it wasn't as strong as it used
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  Speaker 1: to be, and I think with this visit there's now
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  Speaker 1: a much better chance for Japan to sort of re
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  Speaker 1: establish the close connections. There are actually over fifty thousand
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  Speaker 1: US military personal stationed here in Japan, so yeah, it's
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  Speaker 1: really important for them to make sure that the relationship
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  Speaker 1: is great.
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  Speaker 5: Japan has pledged to invest five hundred and fifty billion
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  Speaker 5: dollars in the US economy. Is it clearly yet what
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  Speaker 5: sectors would benefit from that?
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  Speaker 1: Again, this is also more like a framework. Some sectors
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  Speaker 1: have been mentioned, for example, power, generating materials, infrastructure, and
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  Speaker 1: also some parts of agriculture. Japan has agreed to import soy,
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  Speaker 1: for example, from the US. This is a particularly tricky
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  Speaker 1: one for Takoichi as she has to face the national
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  Speaker 1: lobby here of agriculture, and I think there will also
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  Speaker 1: be some closer corporation when it comes to defense and
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  Speaker 1: also in the area of so called doual you use goods.
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  Speaker 1: So we'll have to wait a little more and see
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  Speaker 1: how future, you know, negotiations go. At the moment, I
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  Speaker 1: think it was really important to just establish the sort
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  Speaker 1: of personal relationship to improve later negotiations.
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  Speaker 5: Sonya, thank you very much for your insights. That was
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  Speaker 5: journalist Sonya Blashka in Okinawa, Japan,