With golf and gifts, Abe cuts own path with Trump

"... with someone like Mr Trump, who seems to be impulsive or simple-minded.”

Thanks, that was great for a laugh and I would love to caddy this game.

In a culture where gift-giving is often obligatory, Japan also may come bearing presents.

Could the rights to build a casino be one of the presents Abe gives Trump?

Abe should give Trump a gift of "yuuuge" gloves with a tag that says "Small Size."

Historically, kow-towing and paying tribute to the powerful country by weaker countries usually work. Given that Trump is so attention seeking and likely egoistic, Abe approach should fit into Trump psychological needs like a glove. Expect at least on surface a big resounding success; Trump will re-affirm the "great alliance between US & Japan."

Makoto Koga, a retired lawmaker from Abe’s party

“It may not be necessarily a good idea to get too close or friendly with someone like Mr Trump, who seems to be impulsive or simple-minded.”

Yet another clueless LDP dinosaur who doesn't realise the game has changed, that it isn't 1965 anymore. Patronising Trump plays up to viewers preconceived notions but it creates a false image; Abe is a supplicant here, in effect attempting to bribe Trump to allow the LDP to maintain its death grip on Japan.

@Tounsend: Abe does not have authority aboutTokyo casinos. Trump does not have ten billion dollars to build one casino. Then Odba will collect huge rental. So vegas tycoons founded they need to become a junior partner of Japanese organization. So Trump has no chance.

Haters gonna hate.

It's something known as diplomacy. Abe is being wise, for a change.

Abe is working on behalf of Japan Inc to make sure that Trump does not follow through on his promise to force Japan to give American products equal access to the Japanese market.

Could the rights to build a casino be one of the presents Abe gives Trump?

No, because every aspect of the casinos will be run by Japan Inc. The most any foreign company will get is a fee for licensing their name, and consulting services. Everything from concrete and glass to the gaming machines, to the playing cards will be made by Japan Inc. The casino scheme is just another lifeline thrown by the LDP to Japan Inc to give them another opportunity to make money in a struggling and shrinking domestic economy. There is no way than any foreign casino operator will be allowed earn money in Japan that a Japanese company might make.

Great article. Thanks for sharing.

Golf and gifts. Its the Japanese way.

I've known quite a few Japanese women who are not predictable and who fight among themselves more than any white women I've known. Is this statement you made for real. KOGA? How rude. Americans, including Japanese Americans, voted for Trump because we feel he represents us and will work on our concerns. Does Japan border Mexico? Does Japan have heroin epidemics all over their country due to cartels from Mexico?

We all hope Abe comes back with good news of hope. This way, many Japanese people can rest with ease knowing the relations between Tronald Dump and Japan are solidified.

@Leila26 Koga is a man. Other than that, I agree his comment was pointless and thoughtless.

Abe the crawler... his own path being the lowest one there is; the short and easy road to Sell-Out City. The Japanese people can hold their heads high!

Abe, who departs Thursday, has moved quickly since the U.S. election to try to win Trump over. He was the only world leader to meet him before the inauguration

Abe had no choice. Before the election Abe came to America and met with Hillary, while snubbing Trump. Being the first world leader to visit Trump after the election was a face-saving effort on Abe's part. Trump is not one who forgets being slighted, and Abe knows it.

“Japanese prime ministers and ministers often went to the United States ... bearing a package of such offerings,” she wrote in a commentary posted online Wednesday. “Gift diplomacy could also be twinned with the tactic of substitution compensation, where Japan would not agree with a particular U.S. demand but would offer some other kind of concession instead.”

Meaning that Abe cannot allow American goods equal access to the Japanese market, so he must instead offer something else instead. The only problem was even in the 80's and 90's, these agreements were always one-sided, and benefited Japan. American politicians and their friends were the beneficiaries of these "concessions" while American workers saw their employers shutting their doors.

“It may not be necessarily a good idea to get too close or friendly with someone like Mr Trump, who seems to be impulsive or simple-minded.”

On the other hand, Trump is easily offended, and with a stroke of his pen, he can push Japan's economy over the edge (where it has been teetering for some years). As for simple-minded, Japanese lawmakers' belief that Abenomics could actually create economic growth comes to mind.

Abe and May both crawling to their new master... just to suckle at the teat of American trade. Makes me sick.

I don't think I've seen ANY of the usual Abe apologists on any thread lately commenting about Abe bending over for Trump. Must be pretty hard to admit he's nothing but a sell-out and there's no such thing as "The Japan that said 'No'".

Whereas the PM of New Zealand got, by all accounts, an excellent response & an invite to visit the White House from a simple 10 minute phone call (and no gifts). Trump will give him an offer worthy of Michael Corleone himself & Abe will say please and thank you for it.

I totally agree with Makoto Koga when he says the following.

“Frankly, I have doubts about the idea of him playing golf,” Makoto Koga, a retired lawmaker from Abe’s party, said on a weekly TV political talk show last weekend. “It may not be necessarily a good idea to get too close or friendly with someone like Mr Trump, who seems to be impulsive or simple-minded.”

Without a culture of opposition and the main tool of diplomacy being flattery it will be highly interesting to see how this is developing as opposed to the European appoach.

When Trump was campaigning for president, he slammed former president Obama for "playing more golf than Tiger Woods", yet here he is just two weeks into his presidency, playing golf with Abe-san. What a hypocrite!

…and Ivanka will sit in on the meetings with the 2 leaders, and Abe will arrange for the Ivanka's clothing line to be sold at some high end department store in Tokyo. Ivanka told her dad, "Mr. Abe is a very nice man." Only thing, be aware of the wrath that'll follow by father and daughter if the clothing line is ever cancelled.