Japan welcomes end of Trump era but has its doubts over Joe Biden-led US
- Former prime minister Abe’s close ties with Trump failed to get results as the president ran roughshod over Japan and the core of its diplomacy
- Tokyo will welcome renewed US engagement in Asia but is still hedging its bets, amid lingering questions about the Democratic Party and waning US influence
President-elect Joe Biden’s administration has a lot to prove but inherits a relatively strong US-Japan relationship. He will also find Japan is ready to move beyond US President Donald Trump’s “America first” transactional approach to diplomacy. One can imagine Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s quiet fist pump when he learned of Trump’s defeat.
Even so, scepticism lingers that Biden will seek rapprochement with China to the detriment of Japan, a concern former president Bill Clinton ignited a quarter-century ago when he visited China and bypassed Japan.
This underscores how symbolism matters in diplomacy and has implications for Biden’s choice of the next ambassador. Japan favours candidates who have strong political connections to the White House and know little about the nation because they are easier to manage.
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Diaoyu-Senkaku islands spat deepens as Japan warns China over coastguard ships in East China Sea
It is time to rectify this situation and Glen Fukushima, fluent in Japanese with extensive Japan-related public and private sector experience, is eminently qualified.
Biden’s America needs to learn from the world, not vice versa
He did all this while repudiating multilateralism overall, the mainstay of Tokyo’s diplomacy.
06:04
US-China relations: Joe Biden would approach China with more ‘regularity and normality’
Tokyo slow-walked those negotiations, probably hoping US voters would solve that problem. Biden will probably not take such a hard line but is also unlikely to offer Okinawans a reprieve from the controversial Henoko base construction project they rejected in a 2019 referendum.
Much has changed in the US since the Obama-Biden first term when there was an emphasis on engaging China and treating it as a strategic partner.
04:12
Are Xi Jinping’s China and Donald Trump’s US destined for armed conflict?
While this might be a misleading comparison, it is clear Beijing’s regional ambitions are seen as threats to an Asian Pax Americana.
Statements on the campaign trail are often not a reliable barometer, but Biden denounced President Xi Jinping, lambasted Beijing’s massive lock-up of Uygurs as genocidal and pledged to uphold support for democracy in Hong Kong. This is not exactly music to the Communist Party’s ears.
03:29
RCEP: 15 Asia-Pacific countries sign world’s largest free-trade deal
Japanese leaders have misgivings about Biden over trade as they believe Democrats pander to organised labour. They hope Biden will re-engage in Asia’s multilateral processes and revive its battered networks of influence, but the deep hole Trump dug at home will necessitate an inward focus that cautions against hopes of strong and sustained US leadership.
Jeff Kingston is director of Asian studies at Temple University, Japan