He is afraid of Trump requests to increase military spending
The Japanese Premier Shigeru Ishiba aims to obtain “specific progress” in bilateral negotiations on duties with the United States, hence the next round of ministerial interviews scheduled at the end of April. In a press point with local media, Ishiba defined the first meeting conducted by the Japanese leader Ryosei Akazawa, who returned today from Washington, ‘Franco and constructive’. “We will accelerate preparations and coordination within the executive so that we can make progress on certain themes,” Ishiba told journalists. In the US capital Akazawa met President Trump, and then negotiated with the Treasury Secretary Scott Beesent, the Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and the Jamieson Greer’s representative for trade. Japan, read in a note, urged the United States to review the tariff measures, raising doubts about their legitimacy with the rules of the World Trade Organization, and the bilateral commercial treaty between the two countries.
According to analysts, the interviews could drag on for a long time if the two sides were to face the defense issues and the exchange rate, since Trump has made no secret of considering the bilateral “disadvantageous and unilateral” security pact for Washington, and is against a strong dollar, which in the meantime has fallen to the minimum in 7 months on the Yen.
Separately, the Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani said that the security issues with the United States are “a separate topic” by the duties, not hiding the fears that the costs of the defense of Japan can fall within the future commercial negotiations. Before the meeting with Akazawa, the Japanese media point out, in a post on social media Trump wrote that the Japanese delegates had come ‘to discuss rates and the cost of military support’. In this regard, during the meeting Trump would have expressed his dissatisfaction with the security agreement to the head of the delegation, reveals a government source. Tokyo fears that Washington can push the country of the Rising Sun to further increase the expenses for the defense, and to take charge of a larger part of the costs for the approximately 54,000 US soldiers stationed in Japan.
