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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's trip to Washington for a summit with U.S. President Barack Obama, scheduled for late January, will most likely be put off until February or March, a government spokesman said Monday. Abe has also decided not attend the Jan 23-27 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Abe had hoped to visit Washington for his first official overseas trip since becoming prime minister last month shortly after Obama's inauguration on Jan 21, but scheduling difficulties have made it unlikely, Sankei Shimbun reported Monday, quoting Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga.
Suga also said that Abe wants to focus on domestic matters once the Diet session begins in the last week of January, chiefly formulating a supplementary budget to stimulate the economy.
However, Abe may fit in a quick trip to Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia next week, Jiji Press reported Tuesday.
© Japan Today
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Speed
I wonder if it was Obama who couldn't (wouldn't) make time in his schedule to meet PM #7.
Ewan Huzarmy
So, japan further isolates itself from the rest of the world...... it's not looking good.
semperfi
It is a clear statemnnt by Abe that Japan will define it's own path independant of USA - .............................................- and the FIRST TRIPS to places the VietNam, Thailand and Indonesia signal that partnership with Asian countries take priority for Japan as of now. ....It is good move !
nath
semperfiJan. 08, 2013 - 11:50AM JST
Duhhh, if you had done a bit of reading instead of treating Japan Today as your political oracle, you would have found out that the consensus is that the US called off the meeting because Abe's claim of a meet-up was a unilateral statement by Abe and the US had no intention of meeting Abe in February. The US is not that happy with Abe and has already warned about any revision of the Kono apology. They are also upset with the LDP's dithering of should we or shouldn't we join the TPP talks? Added to this is Abe's attempt to weaken the Yen is messing up the US' own domestic economic policy of a cheap dollar exporting them out of their economic woes. Obama is well aware that if the domestic economy is not in a good state of health by the end of his second term, then an incoming Republican might well undo all of Obama's domestic structural reforms of Obama's 8 year term.
Abe is an idiot and we are well on the way to Abe Mk 2 running off to the toilet again.
smithinjapan
Sounds pretty reasonable -- especially the focussing on domestic matters, part.
Speed: It's entirely possible that Obama saw meeting Abe as a big priority and wasn't all that willing to shift his focus on various matters as well, most (hopefully) domestic.
hkitagawa
Maybe he is going to visit Putin :)
DigitalFunk
Not going to Davos? Probably doesn't want to hear Japan is ranking 101st place on the Gender Gap Index. Nothing to boast about that.