Donald Trump’s constant labelling of the US-Japan security treaty as one-sided is an attempt to maximise trade concessions while doubling down on his bid to get Tokyo to pay more for defence, analysts have said.
Last Thursday, amid a roller-coaster tariffs news cycle sparked by Washington, Trump renewed his complaint against the decades-old security deal just as both countries were set to negotiate levies.
“We pay hundreds of billions of dollars to defend them, but … they don’t pay anything,” the US president told reporters gathered for a cabinet meeting. “If we’re ever attacked, they don’t have to do a thing to protect us,” he said, calling the treaty a “wonderful deal”.
Signed in 1960, the revised bilateral treaty gives the United States the right to set up military bases in Japan and commits Washington to come to Japan’s defence if its Asian ally is attacked.
Under the pact, more than 50,000 American military personnel are stationed in Japan.
Facing a 24 per cent US tariff, Japan is dispatching its minister overseeing trade negotiations, Ryosei Akazawa, on a three-day trip to Washington from Wednesday for bilateral ministerial talks, according to the Tokyo government.
