Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said she plans to strengthen cooperation with the United States on economic security, including rare earths development, when she visits Washington next month, as Japan’s tensions with China have escalated in recent months.
At a news conference late Wednesday, Takaichi, who was reappointed as prime minister earlier that day and formed her second Cabinet, said she hoped to deepen her relationship with President Donald Trump. She said her goals included improving cooperation with the U.S., “especially in economic security,” and her administration is preparing for a summit with Trump next month.
Takaichi described her intention to coordinate closely with Trump on early investment efforts related to Japan’s pledged funding package for U.S. projects. She said she hoped to “closely cooperate” with Trump in the first investment initiatives at talks scheduled for March 19.
She said Japan is committed to the first batch of projects under a $550 billion investment package Japan pledged in October. The projects Japan is committed to include a natural gas plant in Ohio, a U.S. Gulf Coast crude oil export facility and a synthetic diamond manufacturing site.
The U.S. president will also visit Beijing in April, and Takaichi is maneuvering for the Washington meeting as the U.S.-China focus shifts. In the hours before her reappointment as prime minister, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced Japan would provide capital for three projects under the investment package, according to the report.
Takaichi’s new term comes after Parliament reappointed her following a landslide election win last week. The report said she was Japan’s first female leader when she took office in October, and she is now serving a second term after Wednesday’s reappointment and Cabinet formation.
The political leverage she will have in the Diet is also central to her agenda. With two-thirds control of Japan’s 465-seat lower house, the Liberal Democratic Party-led bloc can dominate key lower-house committee posts and push through bills rejected by the upper house, the report said, where the ruling coalition lacks a majority.
Takaichi said she wants to boost Japan’s military capability and arms sales, tighten immigration policies, and advance ultra-conservative social policies. The report described her aims as including an increase in military power, more government spending, and changes aligned with conservative positions on social issues.
Her priorities also include security-policy revisions by December, including plans to revise security and defense policies to increase military capability. The report said she has pledged to revise policies by December to bolster Japan’s military capabilities, lift a ban on lethal weapons exports, and move further away from postwar pacifist principles, and that Japan is also considering development of a nuclear-powered submarine.
On China and Taiwan, the report said Takaichi has previously suggested possible Japanese action if China makes a military move against Taiwan, a self-governing island Beijing claims as its own—comments that have been followed by Beijing’s diplomatic and economic reprisals. The report said many Japanese welcomed her remarks on Taiwan after the election and that experts expect she could take a more hawkish stance toward China.
The report also said Takaichi has moved to secure support for a visit to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, a site seen by Japan’s neighbors as evidence of insufficient remorse for Japan’s wartime past. It said Takaichi supports a male-only imperial succession and opposes same-sex marriage, and that she is against a revision to Japan’s 19th-century civil law that would allow married couples to use separate surnames, a step rights activists have criticized.
She also proposed measures aimed at allowing greater use of maiden names as aliases instead of separate surnames for married couples. The report said her government in January approved tougher rules on permanent residency and naturalization and measures intended to prevent unpaid taxes and social insurance contributions.