By Trevor Hunnicutt and David Brunnstrom
Washington — US President Donald Trump greeted Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi warmly at the White House on Thursday and said he believed Japan was “really stepping up to the plate” on Iran, unlike the Nato alliance.
Trump has lashed out at allies for their lukewarm support for the US-Israeli military campaign and said the US doesn’t need any help. However, he is still pushing for more ships to clear mines and escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, largely closed by Iran in the conflict.
Ahead of the meeting, Japan joined leading nations in Europe in a joint statement, saying they would take steps to stabilise energy markets and were ready to join “appropriate efforts” to ensure safe passage through the strait.
Trump hailed Takaichi’s election victory last month as “record-setting” as he welcomed her at the Oval Office. He said they would be “talking about trade and many other things”, including Iran.
“We’ve had tremendous support and relationships with Japan on everything, and I believe that based on statements that were given to us yesterday and the day before yesterday having to do with Japan, they are really stepping up to the plate... unlike Nato,” Trump said.
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He said he expected Japan to step up given the support the US gave the country and the tens of thousands of troops it has stationed there.
“We don’t need much; we don’t need anything,” Trump said. “We don’t need anything from Japan or from anyone else. But I think it’s appropriate that people step up.”
Takaichi told Trump she had “brought specific proposals to calm down the global energy market” and said Iran must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.
We’ve had tremendous support and relationships with Japan on everything, and I believe that based on statements that were given to us yesterday and the day before yesterday having to do with Japan, they are really stepping up to the plate... unlike Nato.
— US President Donald Trump
Takaichi condemned Iran’s attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and said she believed only Trump could achieve peace. She also said the global economy was about to take a hit due to the turmoil in the Middle East.
At the same time, Takaichi said Tokyo had been reaching out to Iran.
Unlike Washington, Tokyo has diplomatic relations with Tehran, creating a potential avenue for diplomacy in any moves to end the war, although past attempts by Japan to mediate with Tehran in 2019 were unsuccessful.
Takaichi’s long-scheduled White House visit has been aimed at burnishing the decades-old security and economic partnership between Washington and its closest East Asian ally, but there have been concerns among Japanese officials that Trump will press her to do more than she is able to on Iran.
Takaichi has sought to move Japan away from a pacifist constitution imposed by Washington after World War 2, but with the Iran war unpopular at home, she has so far not offered to assist in clearing the Strait of Hormuz.
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said earlier he would expect that Japan, which gets a large share of its crude oil supplies from the Gulf, would want to ensure its supplies are safe.
He told Fox Business Network Japan’s navy has some of the best minesweepers and mine-detection capabilities and that he believed Japan would release more of its large petroleum reserve to supply the strained oil market.
Takaichi told the Japanese parliament on Monday that Japan had received no official request from the US on Iran but was checking the scope of possible action within the limits of its constitution.
Trump said a lot of his discussions with Takaichi would be about energy. Takaichi said they would discuss economic security in areas like energy and minerals.
Japanese officials said Takaichi hoped to remind Trump of the dangers posed by a regionally assertive China — especially to Taiwan — ahead of his planned visit there, which has now been pushed back from an earlier plan for him to visit in two weeks.
In the Oval Office, Takaichi said Japan was open to dialogue with China.
Japan expects Trump to ask Tokyo to produce or co-develop missiles that could help replace stocks of US munitions depleted by the Iran war and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Tokyo is still considering how to respond, Japanese government sources said.
Takaichi will also tell Trump that Japan intends to join the “Golden Dome” missile defence initiative that is meant to detect, track and potentially counter incoming threats from orbit, two Japanese government sources said.
She is expected to announce a fresh Japanese investment in Trump-approved projects in the US, from a $550bn commitment made by the government to win relief from tariffs the US president imposed last year.
Japan could pledge about $60bn as part of the second tranche of its investments spanning critical minerals and energy, said a person familiar with the plans, after already committing to three projects valued at $36bn.
• Trump also said on Thursday that he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to repeat the kind of attack Israel carried out on a major Iranian gas field, while saying the two countries co-ordinate their actions.
In a social media post on Wednesday night, Trump said Washington “knew nothing about this particular attack”.
The attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field prompted an Iranian aerial assault on energy infrastructure in Qatar and across the Middle East, marking the biggest escalation in the US-Israeli war on Iran.
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