Japan’s Abe heads to Washington this week bearing pledges of jobs and investment

Japan’s prime minister, a man who promised voters he would turn Japan back into a “beautiful country”, is now doing his utmost to Make America Great Again.

Shinzo Abe is set to arrive in Washington on Friday for his first official summit with President Trump, and he will arrive armed with proposals on how Japanese companies will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the United States.

Abe is clearly trying to get on the businessman president’s good side, but he will try to do so while also “correcting” Trump’s “misunderstandings” about Japan’s trading practices. Trump has said that Japan and China engage in practices that are “not fair” to US companies, particularly US automakers.

“I will object where I should object,” Abe said in the parliament last week, when asked about Trump’s remarks. “I’d like to clearly explain that it’s not that one side is benefiting but that both sides are benefiting. It’s a win-win situation.”

Abe has wasted no time in currying favour with Trump, becoming the first foreign leader to meet with him after his election when Abe visited Trump Tower in Manhattan the week after Trump’s victory. He had been trying to see Trump within a week of his inauguration, too, but British Prime Minister Theresa May beat him to hold the first summit.

“Abe seems to be playing this as smart as he can,” said Brad Glosserman, a Japan expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies’ Pacific Forum in Hawaii. “It’s important for him to build a rapport with Trump – Trump likes strong nationalist leaders, and Abe is a strong nationalist leader – and personalise the institutionalised relationship.”