WASHINGTON, Oct 6 – The United States on Saturday expressed hope to continue working closely with Japan after the country’s ruling party elected Sanae Takaichi as its new leader.
“We look forward to continuing to work with Japan to advance U.S. and mutual security and economic interests,” a State Department spokesperson said, adding that the bilateral alliance is “the cornerstone of peace, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and across the world and has never been stronger.”
U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass congratulated Takaichi on becoming the Liberal Democratic Party’s first female leader. He wrote in a X post, “I look forward to working with her to strengthen and grow the (U.S.-Japan) partnership on every front.”
Takaichi, 64, a former economic security minister, won the party’s presidential election in a runoff on Saturday. She is set to become Japan’s first female prime minister, replacing Shigeru Ishiba, after a parliament vote in mid-October.
Takaichi’s election comes weeks before U.S. President Donald Trump is scheduled to leave for his first Asia trip since returning to office in January.
Trump is planning to visit Malaysia, Japan and South Korea in late October. After traveling to Kuala Lumpur, where this year’s meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its partners will be held, Trump is likely to arrive in Tokyo around Oct. 27 and hold talks with Japan’s new prime minister.
Trump last visited Japan in 2019 during his first term, when he had one of the closest personal relationships with the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe among world leaders.
Takaichi, a hard-line conservative and known as a China hawk, shares many of Abe’s views on history and national security.
Like Abe, she has argued that Japan’s wartime atrocities — a major source of tensions with China and other neighboring countries — have been over-exaggerated.
Even after his inauguration for a second term in office, Trump has often referred to Abe as a good friend when given the opportunity to speak about Japan.
Major U.S. media outlets reported extensively on Takaichi’s victory in the election of Japan’s governing party, focusing on the prospect of its first female prime minister and her intention to reopen trade talks with Trump, as indicated during her campaign.
Nevertheless, Takaichi is a staunch supporter of Japan’s decades-old alliance with the United States.
The Wall Street Journal reported that “her conservative views on foreign policy and social issues give her a degree of ideological affinity with Trump.”
