Takaichi welcomes US President: Japan's Prime Minister prepares for Trump with pickup truck backdrop

Japan's prime minister is resolutely working to maintain good relations with the United States. Because Trump is complaining about import blockades of American cars, Tokyo's newly elected leader wants to surprise him with a wall of powerful pickup trucks. But that's far from all.

Japan's new government wants to build friendly relations with US President Donald Trump – and is going to astonishing lengths to do so. When Trump arrives in Tokyo today for a three-day visit, kicking off with an audience with Emperor Naruhito, not only will around 18,000 police officers be on duty to protect him. According to Japanese television station NHK, the Ministry of Transportation in Tokyo also wants to treat the guest to the sight of massive American pickup trucks – apparently as a gesture in light of the difficult trade talks. Trump had complained that Japan hardly allows American cars into the country.

The fact that the wide US bodies are quite unsuitable for the often narrow streets of Tokyo and other Japanese cities doesn't seem to matter. According to the report, the trucks will be exhibited at the site of the summit planned for Tuesday with Japan's new national-conservative Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Takaichi will likely benefit from her very close relationship with her assassinated predecessor, Shinzo Abe, with whom Trump maintained a particularly close friendship.

Golden golf balls as a gift?

The US president, who visited the Asian country three times during his first term, enjoyed playing golf with Abe and watching sumo wrestling with him. According to NHK, Takaichi is now considering giving Trump a golf club once used by Abe—along with gold-leaf golf balls.

The newly elected Takaichi is a protégé of Abe, who was assassinated in 2022, and whose nationalist and revisionist views she shares. In her first parliamentary speech as the new head of government, she announced that she would increase Japan's defense budget to two percent of gross domestic product by March. This would achieve this goal two years earlier than previously planned. She described the security alliance with Japan's protecting power, the United States, as a "cornerstone" of her foreign and security policy.