Rubio urges Japan to beef up defenses, but leaves out spending target
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said Tuesday that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had asked Japan to beef up its capabilities during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of a 'Quad' summit Tuesday in Washington.
'In response, we conveyed our position that Japan will proceed with a fundamental strengthening of its defense capabilities based on its own judgment,' the Foreign Ministry quoted Iwaya as saying.
Iwaya said there were 'no discussions' about specific targets for defense spending or costs for the stationing of U.S. troops in Japan. Tokyo, which is in the middle of an ambitious five-year program to boost defense outlays to 2% of GDP, is currently around the 1.8% level.
Last month, the Pentagon told The Japan Times that it had made the 5% of GDP on defense a 'global standard' for Japan and other U.S. allies, in the first official confirmation that Washington is asking Tokyo to pump up its defense budget even further. U.S. President Donald Trump in April called the two countries' alliance 'one-sided' — remarks that echoed Trump's views in his first term, when he demanded Tokyo cough up more cash or risk the removal of U.S. troops.
Japan has denied that a specific figure has ever been broached, while emphasizing that it will not be told how much to spend and that arbitrary figures are less important than what the money is spent on.
Iwaya also said that the two top diplomats had agreed to move forward with coordination for a bilateral "two-plus-two" meeting of the countries' foreign affairs and defense chiefs. A media report last month said the U.S. defense spending demands had prompted that meeting, initially scheduled to be held Monday, to be postponed by the Japanese side.
Negotiations over Trump's unilateral tariffs were also discussed during the meeting, Iwaya said.
Those negotiations appeared to be on life support, though, following Trump's threat the same day to raise reciprocal tariffs on Japan to 35%. Japan's tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, is arranging an eighth visit to the U.S. for negotiations as early as this weekend, local media reported Wednesday.
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