Donald Trump will put his country first in North Korea talks, and Shinzo Abe should too

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has managed to shed some of his image as a "mad dictator" and emerge as a man with whom US President Donald Trump can “do business", while China's President Xi Jinping is seen by some as "statesmanlike" on issues such as global trade. This is reassuring for the world at large but not for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration.

Apart from feeling rather left out of all the recent shuttle diplomacy among Pyongyang, Seoul, Washington and Beijing, Abe is in danger of seeing two of Japan's purported "enemies" (North Korea and China) reduced to the status of paper tigers. There is a distinct danger of peace breaking out on and beyond the Korean peninsula.

For a number of years since he came to power in 2012 (after a brief earlier stint in office), Abe has been pushing for a revision of Japan' s post-war “peace” constitution, one that would allow the country's so-called Self-Defence Forces a more active role overseas.

At the same time, Japan's annual Defence White Paper has emphasised the perceived need for the country to continue strengthening its armed forces and security alliances, not only with the United States (with which Japan has a formal mutual security treaty) but also with Australia and India, among others.