Trump, Japan PM Takaichi hit it off in Tokyo, sign cooperation agreement on strategic rare earths

SEOUL, South Korea — Newly appointed Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and U.S. President Trump appear to have gotten along famously in their first meeting Tuesday in Japan.

Around their bilateral summit in Tokyo, the two inked a partnership deal on strategic materials and discussed Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea — a conservative touchstone in Tokyo. They also released some eagerly awaited details of a huge, but formerly vague, Japanese investment pledge in the U.S.

Mr. Trump, on a tour of the Indo-Pacific, was also joined by Ms. Takaichi as he addressed U.S. troops aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, docked at Japan’s Yokosuka Naval Base in Tokyo Bay.

“I have always had a great love of Japan and a great respect of Japan, and I will say that this will be a relationship that will be stronger than ever before,” Mr. Trump told Ms. Takaichi in the State Guest House in Tokyo. “Any time you have any question, any doubt, anything you want, any favors you need, anything I can do to help Japan, we will be there.”

Ms. Takaichi said the bilateral partnership was entering “a golden era” and would become “the greatest alliance in the world.”

She was elected as Japan’s first-ever female prime minister last week. Viewed as hawkish and conservative, she is the leading protégé of the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who struck up a close relationship with Mr. Trump during his first presidential term.  

She shares much of her political platform with Mr. Trump: Strong on defense, suspicious of immigration, nationalistically focused.

There was less clarity on any tweaks to their bilateral alliance, which sees 50,000 U.S. troops stationed in-country

As it pumps up defense spending, Japan is starting to take delivery of some 400 long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles from Washington, a deal valued at $1.6 billion, as well as medium-range air-to-air missiles for its fleet of F35 stealth jets.

The leaders of the two democracies aligned against China signed a framework agreement to cooperate on critical minerals, including rare earths.

Per a White House statement, the agreement would “assist both countries in achieving resilience and security of critical minerals and rare earths supply chains, including mining, separation, and processing.”

It will also “capitalize on their respective existing mining and processing operations.”

Rare earths — in fact, widely stocked metals — are key components in communications, transport and defense technologies. Due to the environmental damage their extraction causes, the main global supplier is China, which monopolizes the sector with an approximately 70% global market share of mining and 90% of processing capacity. 

As disputes between Beijing and democratic capitals have increased, rare earths have become a strategic supply-chain vulnerability for the Global North.  

Japan offers lessons for nations seeking to slash their reliance.

In 2010, following a territorial dispute off the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, Beijing halted rare earth shipments to Tokyo. Jolted, Japan and Japan Inc. responded by changing technologies, expanding stockpiles and investing in overseas, non-Chinese mines.

According to the World Economic Forum, within 13 years, those steps resulted in Japan reducing its reliance on Chinese rare earths from 90% to 60%.

Japan also discovered a massive underwater stash — estimated at 160 million to 230 million tons, per Science Adviser, a newsletter — of rare earths 18,000 feet deep in 2018. Test mining of the field off Minamitorishima, Japan’s eastern-most island territory, is anticipated in 2026, with extraction in 2027.

If as large as estimated, the find could feasibly become a major global stockpile, though how much that would cut into China’s near-monopoly is, as yet, unclear.

Later in the day, some details emerged on a $550 investment pledge for the U.S. that Japan made earlier this year amid bilateral tariff negotiations.

According to a fact sheet released by the White House, the largest part of the package, up to $332 billion, will be in energy infrastructure, while as much as $75 billion will go into the artificial intelligence sector. Smaller sums will go into infrastructure and shipbuilding.

The fact sheet called Mr. Trump, who has focused on the auto sector, the “Dealmaker in Chief.” 

It said Toyota would export cars made at its U.S. plants to Japan and also open its distribution system in the country to U.S.-made cars.

Moreover, Japan agreed to buy “record”  amounts of U.S. energy.

In their planning for the visit, Ms. Takaichi and her team appeared well-briefed to put Mr. Trump in an upbeat mood.

Their leaders’ lunch at Tokyo’s State Guest House reportedly contained U.S. rice and U.S. steak — unusual ingredients given the fenced-off nature of Japan’s agricultural market, famed for both its high-quality rice and wagyu beef.

Ms. Takaichi also became the latest in a string of global leaders who said she would nominate Mr. Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, citing his successful peace-making in the Middle East, between Gaza and Israel, and in Southeast Asia, between Cambodia and Thailand.

Exporting autos to Japan, the world’s No. 3 carmaker after China and the United States, and home to auto giant Toyota, has always been a hard sell.

Two weeks ago — before Ms. Takaichi took office — local reports circulated suggesting that Japanese officialdom might acquire a fleet of Ford F-150 trucks.

The potential purchase was referenced by Mr. Trump, while en route to Japan: He called the vehicle “a hot truck.”

While clearly designed to alleviate U.S. concerns about barriers to imported vehicles — Japan exported 1.37 million vehicles stateside in 2026, while importing just over 16,000 U.S. cars — the report raised some eyebrows. The outsized Fords do not match domestic preferences for small cars, nor the narrowness of many Japanese roads.

Mr. Trump and Ms. Takaichi also met family members of Japanese allegedly abducted to North Korea. Tokyo says a minimum of 17 persons were abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s from coastal areas of Japan. In the country, they were forced to offer language and cultural training to North Korean spies.

Five were returned in a bilateral deal in 2005, but a belief persists that many more are unaccounted for.

Abductees were a standout issue for Abe, Ms. Takaichi’s mentor.

Asked if he could help, Mr. Trump, who has vocally expressed interest in renewing his first-term acquaintance with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said, “We will see what is going on.”

A South Korean official told foreign reporters in Seoul on Monday that a meeting between Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump during Mr. Trump’s upcoming visit to South Korea looks unlikely.

“The overall observation in our office is that, at the moment, there are no concrete signs that the meeting will be taking place,” Third Deputy Director of National Security at the Office of the President Oh Hyun-joo said.

Mr. Trump is on a packed tour of the Indo-Pacific.

Having joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Malaysia, he is on a state visit to Japan. He next travels to Gyeongju, South Korea, site of the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, for another state visit.

On the sidelines of APEC, he is expected to hold a bilateral summit with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on Wednesday, and another with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is on a separate tour of the region and joined Mr. Trump in Yokosuka.