On the first international trip of his second term, President Trump visited the Middle East and went big, sparking trillions in new artificial-intelligence-centered investments. The result was a win for the administration and a shift away from the narrative that tariffs have upset allies and roiled markets. Now the president has an opportunity to go even bigger, this time with Japan.
Japan undergirds U.S. power in the Pacific. It has one of the world’s largest economies—$4 trillion a year in output, some 27% of which is manufacturing. It spends $70 billion on defense, a figure that has nearly doubled since 2022 as Tokyo grapples with Beijing’s growing capabilities and ambitions. Japanese companies lead the world in critical industries from robotics to material sciences and semiconductor equipment. And Japan hosts more U.S. servicemembers than any other nation. America, in turn, hosts a Japanese national treasure—Dodgers slugger and three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani.