Japan’s new PM Takaichi seeks to rebrand US ties in symbolic first meeting with Trump: Analysts

TAKAICHI’S CHARM OFFENSIVE

Economist Jesper Koll, global ambassador at financial services company Monex Group, said the bilateral meeting is Takaichi’s “grand entry onto the global stage”.

He said she projected professionalism and poise, flattering Trump while emphasising that Japan remains America’s “unsinkable aircraft carrier” in Asia, with the industrial muscle to help power America’s economic revival.

Takaichi also invoked Abe’s friendship with Trump and presented symbolic gifts including Abe’s putter encased in glass.

Abe, who was assassinated in 2022, was the first foreign leader to meet Trump after his 2016 election win. The two shared a close bond over several rounds of golf in both the US and Japan.

In her first diplomatic test just days after taking office, Japan’s first female prime minister was “remarkably comfortable” despite the high stakes, said Sheila Smith of the Council on Foreign Relations, an American think tank.

Hosting Trump in Tokyo rather than visiting Washington worked to her advantage, she added.

“It was a very comfortable setting and it looked like they had time to develop a little bit of a rapport,” she said.