Iran conflict looms large over Trump's meeting with Japan PM

Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is meeting Donald Trump in what she expected would be a "very difficult" conversation, just days after the president's calls for allies to help secure the war-stricken Strait of Hormuz went largely unanswered.

Takaichi told parliament hours before her departure that she would "do everything to maximise [Japan's] national interest".

While the visit was billed as a chance to to talk trade and deepen the US-Japan alliance, shared concerns over the war's impact cast a shadow over the meeting.

In the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump said he expected Japan to "step up" and help safeguard the flow of oil through the region.

The trip was scheduled back in October, a week after Takaichi took office, when Tokyo rolled out the red carpet for Trump and the two leaders heaped compliments on each other, heralding a new "golden age" in bilateral ties.

As of a few weeks ago, the upcoming meeting looked set to be a success, with Takaichi "fresh off a dominant election victory and with a new round of investment projects in the US", Emma Chanlett-Avery, director for political and security affairs at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told the BBC.

But while Takaichi "had intended to build on the warmth of her first meeting with Trump and press upon him Japan's concerns about Chinese aggression ahead of Trump's [then scheduled] meeting with Xi", recent events have complicated things, said Chanlett-Avery.

Earlier this week, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform a call for some countries to help secure the vital strait.

He had pointed to Japan's and other Asian economies' dependence on fuel from the Middle East as reason for them to get involved.

"We get less than 1% of our oil from the [Strait of Hormuz] and some countries get much more... We want them to come and help us," he wrote.

But after receiving a lukewarm response, he retracted his request, saying in a later post that the US did "NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!".

In a joint statement along with the UK, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands published on Thursday, Japan expressed its shared "readiness to contribute appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage" through the strait.

Seated with his counterpart before the meeting, Trump said that he now believes Japan "is stepping up to the plate", although he did not offer details.

Takaichi, for her part, acknowledged a "very severe security environment" and a "huge hit" to the global economy - but said she believed Trump would be able to resolve it.

"I firmly believe that it is only you, Donald, who can achieve peace across the world," she said, speaking through an interpreter. "I am ready to reach out to many of the partners in the international community to achieve our objective together."

Trump did not explicitly say what, in his view, would constitute Japan "stepping up", although he has previously called on US allies to deploy naval forces to the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

Analysts said ahead of the meeting that it would be difficult for Takaichi to respond with a flat refusal if Trump brought up the issue of assistance in the strait during their meeting, given that nearly 95% of the oil Japan uses flows through the strait.

Another issue with Trump potentially demanding military intervention from Tokyo is that Japan is constrained by the pacifist constitution it adopted after World War Two, which bars the country from using force to resolve conflicts except in cases of self-defence.

At one point in the meeting, Trump was asked why US allies were not informed about the operation ahead of time, prompting the president to bring up Japan's 1941 strike on the US.

"We didn't tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor, OK?" Trump said, referring to Japan's attack on US naval facilities in Hawaii.

Direct military assistance would also be deeply unpopular among the Japanese people, with a recent poll by The Asahi Shimbun newspaper showing 82% of voters disapprove of the war.

Takaichi also answered a question about China, which remains Japan's "biggest strategic challenge", says Sheila Smith of the US-based Council on Foreign Relations.

Ties between Beijing and Tokyo have plummeted since November, when Takaichi appeared to suggest that Japan would activate its self-defence force in the event of an attack on Taiwan.

China claims self-governed Taiwan as its own and has not ruled out the use of force to "reunify" with it one day.

Takaichi has neither apologised nor retracted her remarks.

On Thursday, however, Takaichi said that "Japan has been consistently open to dialogue with China", adding that she hopes the US-China relationship will be "conducive for regional security and also ensuring a global supply chain for the world".

Takaichi and Trump were also expected to discuss Japan's participation in the US' Golden Dome missile defence system, according to Japanese media reports last week.

An initial sum of $25bn (£18.7bn) has been earmarked for the project, which is inspired by the Iron Dome that Israel has been using to intercept rockets and missiles since 2011.

And of course, there is the topic of trade. Takaichi said she hoped to discuss energy and rare earth minerals, among other topics.

With Japan's domestic economy struggling to cope with rising inflation, a weak yen and sluggish consumer spending, securing a stable economic partnership with the US is especially vital.