Wednesday, April 10, 2024 | 8:02 a.m.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden welcomed Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to the White House on Wednesday for talks on the delicate security situation in the Pacific and for a glitzy state dinner, honoring a leader who has proven to be one of Biden's strongest allies in the face of international crises.
Kishida’s official visit completes the administration’s feting of the leaders of the Quad, the informal partnership between the U.S., Japan, Australia and India that the White House has focused on elevating since Biden took office. As administration officials put it, they saved the most pivotal relationship for last.
The visit also marks the realization of Japan’s transformation from regional player to that of global influencer — with senior Biden administration officials noting appreciatively there is little the U.S. does across the globe that Tokyo doesn’t support. They pointed to Japan’s eagerness to take a leading role in trying to bolster Ukraine against Russia’s invasion and with the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Biden and Kishida are also kindred spirits as politicians, both confronting difficult political headwinds on the home front while trying to navigate increasingly complicated problems on the global stage. Like Biden, Kishida has been dogged by low approval ratings for much of his tenure.
Biden's reelection effort has been shadowed by an American electorate anxious about inflation, unease among some Democrats over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war, and concerns about whether at 81 he's too old to serve another four years. The U.S. economy got another blip of dour data on Wednesday with the government reporting that consumer inflation ticked up last month, boosted by gas, rents, auto insurance and other items.
Kishida, meanwhile, is dealing with a Japanese economy that slipped to the world’s fourth-largest after it contracted in the last quarter of 2023 and fell behind Germany. Polls in Japan show that support for Kishida, who was elected in 2021, has plunged as he deals with a political funds corruption scandal within his ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
“For President Biden, this is, of course, a chance to highlight and cement progress in the relationship, the most important bilateral alliance in the Indo-Pacific. It’s a chance to sustain urgency and momentum in this relationship,” said Christopher Johnstone, a former national security official in the Biden administration who is now the Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “For Kishida, it’s a chance to showcase his ties to the U.S., to prop up support at home.”
There are differences between the leaders. The visit comes after Biden announced last month that he opposes the planned sale of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel of Japan. Biden argued in announcing his opposition that the U.S. needs to “maintain strong American steel companies powered by American steelworkers.”
Biden welcomed Kishida on Wednesday morning with a pomp-filled arrival ceremony on the White House South Lawn. The leaders will hold Oval Office talks and a joint press conference before the formal dinner, which will include a post-meal performance by singer-songwriter Paul Simon, a favorite of both Kishida and first lady Jill Biden.
The Bidens hosted Kishida and his wife for dinner Tuesday evening, taking the couple to BlackSalt, a seafood restaurant in a tony neighborhood in the nation's capital.
The couples also exchanged gifts. The Bidens presented Kishida with a three-legged table handmade by a Japanese American-owned company in Pennsylvania. The president also gave Kishida a custom-framed lithograph and a two-volume LP set autographed by Billy Joel. Jill Biden gave Yuko Kishida a soccer ball signed by the U.S. women’s national team and the Japanese women’s national team.
Kishida gave Biden Wajima-Nuri lacquerware coffee cups as well as pens and Okinawan coffee beans. Yuko Kishida gifted Jill Biden a matching Takaoka copperware necklace, bracelet and earrings. The visitors gave the Bidens Nintendo items, including a stuffed Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Yoshi.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the leaders will announce plans to upgrade U.S.-Japan military relations, with both sides looking to tighten cooperation amid concerns about North Korea's nuclear program and China's increasing military assertiveness in the Pacific.
Kishida and Biden are also expected to confirm Japan’s participation in NASA’s Artemis moon program as well as its contribution of a moon rover developed by Toyota Motor Corp. and the inclusion of a Japanese astronaut in the mission. The rover, which comes at a roughly $2 billion cost, would be the most expensive contribution to the mission by a non-U.S. partner to date.
The leaders are also expected to announce cyber initiatives and new educational partnerships, and Kishida is expected to take part in planting a cherry blossom tree on the National Mall, an administration official said.
Biden has heaped praise on Japan for its significant increase in defense spending and has tightened cooperation on economic and security matters throughout Kishida's tenure.
Japan was quick to step up in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, join the U.S. and other Western allies in mounting aggressive sanctions on Moscow, and Japanese automakers Mazda, Toyota and Nissan announced their withdrawal from Russia.
Tokyo has been one of the largest donors to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion, and Japan has surged its defense spending amid concern about China’s military assertiveness.
As part of its increased defense, Japan agreed to acquire U.S.-made Tomahawks and other long-range cruise missiles that can hit targets in China or North Korea under a more offensive security strategy. Japan, Britain and Italy also began a collaboration on a next-generation jet fighter project.
Kishida will remain in Washington on Thursday to take part in a U.S.-Japan-Philippines summit, at which China's increasing aggressive action in the region will loom large over the talks.
Relations between China and the Philippines have been repeatedly tested by skirmishes involving the two nations’ coast guard vessels in the disputed South China Sea. Chinese coast guard ships also regularly approach disputed Japanese-controlled East China Sea islands near Taiwan.
“The main intent of this trilateral agreement is for us to be able to continue to flourish, to be able to help one another, and ... to keep the peace in the South China Sea and the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea,” Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told reporters before departing for Washington on Wednesday.
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AP writer Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this story.
