The three-day state visit by the president and First Lady Melania Trump — highlighted by a meeting with Japan’s new emperor, Naruhito, and a sumo match — is intended to showcase the U.S.-Japanese alliance, according to the White House, despite Trump’s harsh criticism of the $68-billion trade imbalance in 2017 between the countries.
Japan has sought to cement closer ties with the Trump administration as North Korea continues to build up its nuclear arsenal, and as China has grown increasingly assertive in the economies and strategic calculations of other Pacific Rim nations.
Tokyo will receive Trump in a “festive mood,” predicted Ichiro Fujisaki, a former Japanese ambassador to the United States.
There were no protests Saturday, as there often are when the president visits Europe. A strong earthquake centered about 50 miles south of Tokyo shook buildings in the capital shortly before Trump’s arrival, though it did not cause any serious damage or disrupt the visit.
“This is a great introduction to Japanese culture for the president, but it’s also a clever way of connecting him with the Japanese people,” said Nicholas Szechenyi, a Japan scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington.
Trump will attend a sumo wrestling tournament Sunday and will award the “Trump Cup” to the winner. Unlike Japanese fans, who sit cross-legged on mats in the arena, Trump and his entourage will get chairs.
He also will play a round of golf with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has spoken with Trump either by phone or in person more than 40 times since the 2016 election, easily outpacing other world leaders in winning Trump’s attention.
Trump is a longtime fan of American professional wrestling, a more staged form of the sport. He was in the ring for a match more than a decade ago and had a former wrestling executive, Linda McMahon, serving in his Cabinet as administrator of the Small Business Assn. until this year.
On Monday, Trump will become the first foreign leader to visit the new emperor and later will attend a formal dinner at the Imperial Palace. Trump will also meet with Abe and is expected to hold a news conference.
Administration officials said the the two leaders will discuss trade but they are not expected to announce an agreement to head off Trump’s threats to impose automobile tariffs.
Trump also will visit a naval base south of Tokyo that is used by both Japanese and U.S. forces. The visit takes place Tuesday, but is meant to commemorate Memorial Day back in the States.
Trump plans to return to Japan on June 28 for the Group of 20 economic summit in Osaka. He is expected to hold more substantive talks with Abe then, as well as meet separately with China’s president, Xi Jinping and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, on the sidelines of that summit.
LAT
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