In 2016, those attitudes helped carry him to victory among voters disillusioned with globalization. But before Mr. Trump’s inauguration, Mr. Abe was the first world leader to visit the president-elect in Trump Tower, where he applauded Mr. Trump’s election win and presented him with a gold-plated golf club. Mr. Trump, who was still being viewed warily by other world leaders, never forgot the gesture, said Shinsuke J. Sugiyama, who was Japan’s ambassador to the United States during the first Trump administration.
“Abe took a risk by being the first world leader to visit him,” Mr. Sugiyama said. “This gave Trump a whole different image of Japan.”
Japan’s current prime minister has tried to use that same playbook during the second Trump administration, but with mixed results. Mr. Abe’s widow, Akie Abe, had dinner with Mr. Trump and Melania Trump in January at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
A month later, Mr. Ishiba became one of the first heads of state to visit Mr. Trump at the White House, playing up Japan’s huge investments in American business and industry. He also mentioned the July 2024 assassination attempt on Mr. Trump, telling the U.S. president, “You were one chosen by God.”
Mr. Ishiba earned priority access to Mr. Trump for his negotiator, a close political ally named Ryosei Akazawa, who will seek an exemption from Mr. Trump’s tariffs, most likely by pledging to buy more American food, weapons and energy. The U.S. team may press Japan to weaken its currency, which would drive down the cost of American imports, and also to pay more for maintaining the U.S. military bases in Japan.
“By being first to bend a knee, Abe allowed Trump to say, ‘Look, Japan was laughing at us, but now that I’m in power, they come to see me,’” said Jennifer M. Miller, a historian of U.S.-Japan relations at Dartmouth College. “Ishiba is hoping the old playbook will still work.”
