![\"Japanese](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/rcv.YNA.20260520.PAF20260520261801009_P1.jpg\"\/ "\\"Trump's")
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. AFP-Yonhap<\/p>\nJapanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. AFP-Yonhap<\/p>\n
George Glass, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, emphasized the strength of the U.S.-Japan alliance, revealing that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi was the first foreign leader U.S. President Donald Trump called following the U.S.-China summit held in Beijing.<\/p>\n
Glass made the remarks on the 21st as a guest speaker at the inaugural meeting of “Kokuryoku Kenkyukai” (National Strength Study Group), a group of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers supporting Prime Minister Takaichi. “The very fact that Prime Minister Takaichi was the first foreign leader President Trump called immediately after the U.S.-China summit symbolically demonstrates the underlying strength of the U.S.-Japan alliance and the deep trust between the two leaders,” he said.<\/p>\n
Glass strongly rebutted China and Russia’s criticism of the Takaichi government’s policy of expanding defense capabilities as “neo-militarism.” “Such claims are utterly baseless,” he said, dismissing them as “nothing more than a scheme by outside forces to weaken the U.S.-Japan alliance.” He also welcomed Japan’s increase in defense spending and moves to abolish the “exclusively defense-oriented policy” (senshu boei), under which Japan exercises only minimum defense capability when attacked by another country, saying these “directly contribute to enhancing the military capabilities of both the United States and Japan.”<\/p>\n
He also stressed that the two countries should further strengthen cooperation in areas such as cybersecurity and military base defense, and continue to bolster deterrence.<\/p>\n
More than 200 LDP lawmakers attended the inaugural meeting of the Kokuryoku Kenkyukai in person, demonstrating Prime Minister Takaichi’s grip on the party. Senior party figures present included Vice President Taro Aso, who leads the Aso faction; former Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato, who chairs the study group; and Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, who serves as its secretary-general. Prime Minister Takaichi herself did not attend the meeting. Observers within and outside political circles suggest that the launch of the study group will mark a watershed moment in solidifying Takaichi’s political standing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. AFP-Yonhap George Glass, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, emphasized the strength of the U.S.-Japan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,17152,17154,17155,11620,7475,112,14181,17153],"class_list":["post-25597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-seoul","tag-donald-trump","tag-george-glass","tag-japan-defense-policy","tag-kokuryoku-kenkyukai","tag-ldp","tag-sanae-takaichi","tag-seoul","tag-u-s-china-summit","tag-u-s-japan-alliance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}