Ishiba heads to U.S. for Trump summit

Time to sell off part of Japanese soul or get a tariff

Ishiba is going to either pull it off beautifully with Trump, or bomb totally. With Trump there really isn't a sensible moderate medium path.

No brown nosing, there is no honour for this. Dont be the only country doing everything trump says.

That is a very optimistic spin, Sheila Smith. Put me on OA's team on this one. It is hard to imagine there will be some middle ground.

The Japan summit could be less startling, Smith said, as Trump "has a fairly strong commitment to the alliances in Asia".

Whats the opposite word to US summit ?

Ditch talk ?

Japanese PM heads off for more ditch talk with Trump

Looking forward to seeing what he can accomplish with Trump.

Ishiba did an interview with Jimmy Ohnishi on ガキ使 a few years ago, so at least he's used to talking to intellectually challenged people.

itterasshai!

Either take a quick crash course in golfing,or feign an interest.

Also, don't smoke or drink,The Donald can't stand that.

It's not rocket science.

All that is needed is a PR victory to Trump. It can be completely vacuous, such as Japan promising to do what it does already. Or promising slightly less even. It just has to sound like a victory that Trump can write about on Truth Social.

Itteirasshai and enjoy your trip.

Nice main Photo, LOL.

Great photos. They're like both "Duhhhhhhh".

Truly, dumb and dumber vibes.

Namahage

Either take a quick crash course in golfing,or feign an interest.

He's an old Japanese man. I guarantee he already has an interest in golf, as well as a very expensive set of clubs and a golf club membership.

Trump intellectually challenged ? Ok, cool. Guess that must be the reason why you are POTUS and Donald is here posting on JT then.

From the same fawning logician that brought you, 'Ghosts made Russia invade', and 'Why aren't you fighting in Ukraine like I'm not?'

Which country are you president of?

It must take a lot of energy to be so pissed that your side badly lost the election and spend all this time whining about the winner. 

In US Politics, the dumbest people are "red team good, blue team bad" or vice versa. Both sides are hopeless and are overseeing massive US decline.

Japan should recognize this and not cower in fear. The new guy simply likes to do a tough guy act, so Japan should play along with it. No concessions are actually necessary. Canada and Mexico didn't make any.

garypenToday  06:41 pm JST

Namahage

Either take a quick crash course in golfing,or feign an interest.

He's an old Japanese man. I guarantee he already has an interest in golf, as well as a very expensive set of clubs and a golf club membership.

Ishiba used to play golf in high school and later as a member of the Tottori Country Club Yoshioka Onsen Course. But he hasn't been an avid golfer for decades. Might be able to revive interest, maybe not.

They couldn't find better photos? I'd like to see the editorial staff try the same with female politicians..

Ishiba heads to U.S. for Trump bootlicking.

Another headline fixed.

Of course Ishiba will stress Japan’s huge investment in the US. It’s no doubt what Canada did a few days ago (their total investment is only 1% less than Japan’s and last year’s flow was actually higher) which is why Trump backed down from his tariffs.

I'm looking at the two photos above. Is this all USA and Japan can come up with? Sweet mother of Jesus.

I'm looking at the two photos above. Is this all USA and Japan can come up with? Sweet mother of Jesus.

It's quite disconcerting how similar they look...

'Trump will meet Ishiba in Washington on Friday -- just days after a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where the U.S. president sparked uproar with a proposal to take over the Gaza Strip".

Ishiba san will tell Trump about the Rule Of Law?? Hypxxxxxx. Just give in to the school yard bully.

Ishiba is going to try his hardest and Trump will just nod his head while he thinks about golf and McDonald's. Then Trump will say, "How much are you going to give us?" and Ishiba will write a blank check with our taxes.

Trump does not respect Japan or its leaders one iota. He knows that he can force them to bow down on hands and knees just by saying so. He respects whom he regards as "strong men" and he has never thought a Japanese leader was one of them. He'll get Ishiba's name wrong while Ishiba smiles and nods, and he'll say that Japan has greed to buy trillions of $US in old military weaponry that the US couldn't make work properly. Ishiba will then take the stage to talk about the importance of the alliance, and Trump will get bored and walk away, with the news cutting to something else.

Increase those Japanese taxes!

This guy is making a huge error by bringing up certain metal maker/s.

Let it rest and don't mention the war. This guy is asking for it.

Trump will get angry: if he thinks tariffs are bad news, wait till he unilaterally renounces the 71 reversion agreement, indicating a long-term ownership position of southern islands for redevelopment with a bunch of new resorts/casinos turning it into the 'Riviera of the East China Sea'.

I agree with the author that this should be a somewhat subdued meeting. The Japan-US relationship is pretty much in a steady state.

I also agree maybe not the best time to open the whole US Steel purchase thing. Trump has enough going on right now. If the Japanese government is intent on getting in the middle of that deal, let it settle a bit then revisit next year.

Is this a shrewd preceptive/pre-emptive strategy from Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to gain an edge on future demands for J taxpayer to contribute more to counter this US administration insistence J people pay more to service the The Japan-U.S. Security Treaty?

To counter future threats of tariffs increases?

The thread below suggests Shigeru Ishiba is open to throw a future "imports deal" of LNG is on the table.

Ishiba to pledge more LNG imports from U.S. in talks with Trump

https://japantoday.com/category/politics/refiling-japan-pm-to-pledge-more-lng-imports-from-u.s.-in-talks-with-trump

Could Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba not have taken more time to consider, President Trump in-between announcing potential land/property deals on prospective future "Gaza" beach front condominiums.

The ever more concerning loss of the political diplomatic military agenda in Ukraine?

J government has the time to wait, leverage the possible Trump economic "fallout" from his China tariff polices.

A "bring Mohammed to the mountain" approach at present maybe ill advised.

Better bring along some territory to handover.

I am sure some China Hawks in Trump's cabinet are eyeing Okinawa. Heck, Team USA administered the place from 1945-1972.

Ishiba san should tell Trump Japan will return Ryukiu to UN to avoid US annexation.

Also, don't smoke or drink,The Donald can't stand that.

It seems that's a prerequisite for all Japanese politicians.

In that photo of the two, they have the same corrupt face, and the same nose, and are a mirror image of each other, strange in every way.

deanzaZZRToday  03:06 am JST

Precisely the point I made at 10:36pm.

Like Greenland, it wouldn't need to be invaded - the forces are already there and realistically there wouldn't be any serious armed resistance.

It'd be done under the pretext of national security, maritime, economic etc for confronting China with a sovereign, unsinkable aircraft carrier. One would be naive to pretend the enormous EEZ, including mineral wealth, within the overall chain hasn't been eyed off (and this time not by the imagined threat of Beijing!).

Washington is paying for the overall 'defense' - the next logical position is to reassume an ownership position. There is very little Tokyo could do, having spent so much time vassalizing themselves. Empires accumulate debts and resource extraction is the obvious way to service it and that's where they'll be found in Japan's case.

Wouldn't be surprised if DJT merely invokes this as a threat when he gets annoyed, to intimidate them. There is precedence in this: Milhous once infamously threatened Tokyo with the fate of those islands during negotiations back in the day and they buckled faster than a cheap tent in typhoon.

Good luck PM Ishiba. Luckily anyone in any high pressure positions doing the best they can in an incredibly complex world will never have to read such comments as above from the know it all keyboard ‘experts’!

You wouldn’t have to care anyway, it’s ineffective just noise that springs from planet frustration.

God speed, do what you can for Japan..

Hey, that even rhymes!

We all ( well, not quite all ) hope for the very besto!

President Trump will make Japan great again!