Japan's 'geeky' PM Ishiba to navigate Trump relations

by Hiroshi HIYAMA

Days after Donald Trump's 2016 election victory, Japan's then-prime minister Shinzo Abe rushed to deliver him a gold-plated golf club, becoming the first leader to visit and setting the tone for a relationship both men said was close.

Japan's current, bookish Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is not expected to be able to replicate that storied alliance as he meets the mercurial US president in Washington on Friday.

Ishiba, a soft-spoken details man, faces the tall order of cementing the US-Japan alliance without the same charisma, lavish dinners, or golf.

The 68-year-old political veteran is known to prefer conventional, careful deliberations of policy over wining and dining his political counterparts.

"I don't think the relationship is going to replicate the Trump-Abe relationship. In fact, I think it's probably a mistake to try," Sheila Smith, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told AFP.

Ishiba is expected to stress Japan's status as the top foreign investor in the United States, and Tokyo's contracts for expensive US military equipment such as missiles.

He will also seek to shelter Japan from trade tariffs or other blowback from Trump's America First agenda.

- Model warships -

While the late Abe presided over a large Japanese political faction and travelled several times to Mar-a-Lago, Ishiba is best known for his fascination with model warships, trains and 1970s pop idols. He is often described in Japan as a "geek".

Pundits say Abe's bond with Trump may have shielded Japan from some of the more punishing tendencies of the administration, such as sudden trade wars and pressure to increase financial contributions towards hosting US soldiers.

The legacy of that personal bond was made clear in December when the assassinated prime minister's widow Akie was hosted at a dinner at Mar-a-Lago.

Japanese media meanwhile reported that Ishiba was briefed to keep things simple during his encounter with Trump to avoid provoking any punitive response.

"I would like to establish a relationship of trust," Ishiba said after the US president's inauguration.

He later stressed the importance of US defense commitments to security in the Asia-Pacific region, warning of a potential "power vacuum" if this is withdrawn.

"As the balance of power in the region undergoes a historic change, we must deepen Japan-US cooperation further, in a concrete manner," he told parliament.

- Minority government -

Ishiba, a former minister of defense and agriculture, is the son of a regional governor.

A Christian, he is reportedly finding it difficult to find time for smoking breaks in his new job as prime minister.

His sometimes clumsy ways -- ranging from the less than perfectly tidy arrangement of his tuxedo to his table manners -- have been rich fodder for social media memes.

When Abe was in power, Ishiba was openly critical of aggressive monetary easing and government spending, and was pushed away from key government and political posts.

Ishiba took over in October, replacing prime minister Fumio Kishida who vacated his post as the public vented over inflation and various scandals hitting the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

After taking office, Ishiba quickly called a snap election -- but suffered a huge loss that forced him to form a minority government.

Still, the majority of voters said in surveys at the time that Ishiba should stay on the job, with the election seen more as a setback for the LDP than a referendum on the new leader.

Ishiba, a father of two daughters, hails from the western region of Tottori and has pledged to revitalise depressed rural parts of Japan as well as to increase wages and address the country's low birth rate.

Before taking power, he backed the creation of a regional military alliance along the lines of NATO, although he has emphasized this less in recent months.

He has warned that East Asia faces the most severe since the end of World War II although did not name specific threats such as the military ambitions of China or North Korea.

© Agence France-Presse