Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe received a phone call from U.S. President Donald Trump in the morning on March 9. Trump proudly said that he had “good news”: A summit would be held between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un by May. However, for Tokyo, honestly speaking, it was not happy news. Japanese officers were shocked by how easily the United States changed its hawkish stance toward North Korea. They had strongly believed that Japan and the U.S. had been keeping solidarity by maintaining maximum pressure on North Korea.
“The U.S. has made a decision completely beyond Japan. Japan has been left out of the picture,” said a former defense minister.
Tokyo is now cautiously observing the process moving toward a U.S.-North Korea dialogue and is concerned that negotiations on denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula might exclude Japan’s views.
