Japan

Shinzo Abe’s World

Column: Japan's prime minister thrives in a dangerous neighborhood
Shinzo Abe and leaders

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TOKYO—”I would like to congratulate you on your historic victory in the midterm election in the United States,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Donald Trump during the recent G20 summit. Mentions of the remark occasioned knowing smiles here during a recent study trip sponsored by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The election might not have been, strictly speaking, a “historic victory” for Trump—Republicans lost some 40 seats and control of the House of Representatives while adding two seats to their Senate majority—but Japanese voters are nonetheless aware of Abe’s intention. He wants to be Trump’s friend. More importantly, he needs to be.

The Great Wall of Democracy

Column: China's drive to the Western Pacific
U.S. Marines deployed from Okinawa, Japan participate in the U.S. and South Korean Marines joint landing operation at Pohang in South Korea

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OKINAWA—I’ve had to wait on the tarmac for planes ahead of mine to take off before, but never F-15s. Naha airport here shares a runway with Japan’s Air Self Defense Forces, leading to delays whenever Japanese fighters scramble to counter Chinese incursions into the airspace above the Senkaku Island Chain in the East China Sea. The pace of such incursions has accelerated over the last half decade. The Japanese scrambled a high of 1,168 times in 2016, mostly in response to Chinese activity. The sight of active afterburners on a U.S. commercial runway would be shocking. In Okinawa, it’s everyday life.

Mattis Heads to China for Strategic Talks with PLA

First visit to Beijing comes amid heightened tensions

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EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, ALASKA—Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will make his first visit to China this week for talks with Chinese military leaders amid growing tensions over China’s militarization of islands in the South China Sea.

Mattis told reporters aboard an Air Force E-4B jet, a militarized Boeing 747, en route to northern Alaska that he plans to gauge China’s strategic approach to the United States during talks in Beijing.