New U.S. defense secretary James Mattis paid his first official oversea visit to South Korea and Japan from Thursday to Saturday. Both Seoul and Tokyo prepared high-level receptions. Talks between Mattis and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Mattis's Japanese counterpart Tomomi Inada and other members of Japanese cabinet were held, which is unprecedented in Japan-U.S. diplomatic history.
During his visit, Mattis was set to ease Seoul and Tokyo's worries about Trump's administration as President Donald Trump tapped South Korea and Japan on issues including defense cost and bilateral trade in his campaign and presidential rhetoric.
According to Yonhap News Agency, South Korea and the U.S. agreed to deploy and launch the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea within this year. The Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported that Mattis assured Abe that the U.S.-Japan security treaty covers the Diaoyu Islands.
Given Trump's Asia policy is still unclear, what Mattis, the U.S. top defense policy maker, said has conciliated Seoul and Tokyo's trust and would, to a certain extent, demonstrate Trump's regional policy.
A warm-up for the upcoming summit meeting between the U.S. and Japan, Mattis's Asia visit will dismiss Japan's political pessimism about the bilateral relations at home.
Abe is to meet Trump at the summit talks on the upcoming Friday. Ahead of Abe's first state visit to the U.S. under Trump, a poll conducted by Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun on Monday last week showed that 70 percent of the respondents worried about Japan-U.S. relations. Meanwhile, voices criticizing Trump's recent immigration ban have also been heard in Japan.
Mattis' visit to Japan, as well as his assuredness of the U.S.-Japan security cooperation, will ease the worries of the Japanese public about the Trump administration and improve Trump's image, thus, give a boost to the U.S.-Japan relations.
However, Mattis' comments on the U.S.-Japan security treaty are not going to be the same with what Trump will utter at the summit talks. Trump launched attacks on Japan's auto giant Toyata and Japan's currency manipulation at the beginning of this year. In order to prevent the Japan-U.S. economic conflicts from dampening the two countries' politics, Abe's administration has prepared plans to boost Japan's investment in the U.S. market, as well as in U.S. employment. On Friday, Abe also called in Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyada to discuss building new factories in the U.S..
At the summit talks this week, it is expected that Abe will come up with an economic plan on extensive Japan-U.S. cooperation in a bid to buy Trump's diplomatic and security support, especially to invite Trump's declaration of the feasible application of the U.S.-Japan security treaty to the Diaoyu Islands.
But there is little chance for that happening as Trump just took office. Obama said the treaty could cover the islands during his Japan visit back in April 2014. Nonetheless, Trump may say something that Abe would love to hear when it comes to the South China Sea issue. This is up to how much Japan is willing to pay. Trump, after all, is quite a businessman.
As the meeting draws near, Japanese media have been talking about Abe and Trump's private activity - playing golf in Florida, a game that aims to build a good relationship between them. Reports also said that the first daughter Ivanka Trump, who spoke highly of Abe and advised her father to follow Abe's proposal, will join them as well.
Despite this soft news, the meeting would not be easy. It is worth noting that Abe will visit Washington together with his financial minister and other top economic aides, a move which shows that he has attached great significance to the meeting, with his worries about their economic and trade relationship lurking behind.
Therefore, the two countries' economic and trade talks will top the summit agenda while Japan, who received the short end of the bargain in the bilateral relationship, is likely to make big compromise in this area.
Chen Yang, the author, is a PhD candidate with the Tokyo-based Toyo University.
