The Japan Times ran a glowing report on Oct. 28 on the result of the Oct. 28 summit meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Under the title “Takaichi Buys Time and Builds Trust With ‘Near-Perfect’ Trump Summit,” it quotes several leaders from different political factions praising her role in the meeting.
The Japan Times writes: “With a successful summit, Takaichi achieved most of her goals, including an understanding from Trump over Japan’s push to boost its defense capabilities, while the U.S. President pocketed a number of economic deliverables, most notably an agreement to cooperate on rare-earth and critical minerals. ‘It was a near-perfect meeting,’ LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Takayuki Kobayashi said after the summit Tuesday. ‘We were able to demonstrate to the world the strength of the Japan-U.S. relationship and the close rapport between our leaders.’”
The paper adds: “Even the head of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), which has often been critical of the LDP, welcomed Takaichi’s performance. ‘It is most significant that, despite it being their first meeting, they were able to start off on a harmonious note through their shared friendship with the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,’ CDP leader Yoshihiko Noda said Tuesday [Oct. 28], adding that the key outcome of the summit was ‘the establishment of a personal relationship of trust.’”
