Now is a time for alliance management and shrewd diplomacy from Japan.
As always, management — politically, bureaucratically and through other levels — is critical to healthy bilateral alliances. The U.S.-Japan relationship is no different and the alliance managers on both sides have been working in overdrive over the past year amidst some growing challenges. During the early days of the Trump administration, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe looked to nurture personal relations with U.S. President Donald Trump in order to promote and protect Japan’s security alliance with Washington — amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula and an increasingly assertive regional posture by China. This was most evident with the repeated summits between the two leaders, but was also…
