My Wife's America and the Curious Timing of a Presidential Call
This morning, my wife declared, "Japan must speak up to America more clearly." Five minutes later, while watching a Netflix thriller, she sighed, "Ah, American shows are just the best." Navigating her moods might be harder than the Japan–U.S. trade relationship.
On May 23rd, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba spoke for 45 minutes with former President Donald Trump, just before a key U.S.–Japan ministerial tariff negotiation. An unusual move—initiated by Trump—that sidestepped the usual sequence of bureaucrats, ministers, then heads of state.
In diplomacy, this reverse order is no coincidence. It smells of pressure, not protocol.
Trump’s message, though polite—"We expect productive talks"—carries subtext as thick as Washington’s humidity: “Fail today, and our G7 handshake won’t be friendly.”
Trump treats diplomacy like a boardroom pitch. And this was his version of the CEO calling the site manager the morning of the big presentation.
A Stage Called Negotiation, or Just a Tribunal in Disguise?
Japan went into the meeting asking for U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminum, and autos to be removed. What was offered in return? Investment in American jobs. That’s not diplomacy. That’s tribute.
This is no longer a negotiation between equals. Japan pleads, America chooses. “Free trade” is the banner—but not the battlefield.
True negotiation depends on trust—not flowery words but posture and presence. And here, Ishiba wobbles. His team scrambles to offer something—anything—while Washington waits.
Logic Without Belief and Trump’s Nose for Disloyalty
Ishiba always sounds... reasonable. Talks of defense, economic security, the right things. But behind the polished reasoning, where is the belief? The direction? The backbone?
He wavered on tax policy. Disregarded his own campaign pledges. Compared Japan’s economy to Greece with a shrug. These aren’t signs of vision. They’re symptoms of drift.
And Trump? Trump detects drift like a shark smells blood.
He hasn’t forgotten that Ishiba, during Abe’s tenure, repeatedly criticized his own government from within. Disloyalty—even rhetorical—is not forgotten in Washington. Especially not by someone who trades in loyalty as currency.
A man who shoots behind his own lines may one day do the same across borders. That alone makes Ishiba, no matter how polite, untrustworthy to a man like Trump.
The Myth of Japanese Initiative—And the Hidden Labor Beneath the Show
Now we hear talk of an in-person meeting at the G7 in Canada. Maybe even a visit to the U.S. soon. Yet Japan doesn’t seem to be writing this script. They’re reacting to it.
What will be said at the G7? What will Japan demand? What will it give? Where does negotiation end, and capitulation begin? These questions hang, unanswered.
If negotiation is theatre, Trump is improvising with lines that sting. And Japan? It still thinks it’s at a rehearsal.
Ishiba needs to master the performance—not just the script. Trust can’t be demanded. It must be played into being. And frankly, this show’s lead actor hasn’t rehearsed enough.
But let me say this: I hold no grudge against the backstage crew—the bureaucrats, the negotiators, the aides who must make all this work.
They carry the burden of a prime minister placed on stage by a media machine, not merit. They bend to reconcile policy gaps, personal flaws, and foreign pressure. And we—citizens and cynics alike—will never fully grasp how hard that job is.