SEOUL — Japan Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will be the first U.S. ally to visit the White House since President Trump asked for help in sending ships to patrol the Strait of Hormuz.
While Trump has since said the United States doesn't need help, Takaichi is likely to come under pressure Thursday to both please the U.S., Japan's only treaty ally, while working within tough legal and political constraints.
Takaichi has said Japan has no plans to dispatch warships to the Middle East, but she also hasn't explicitly turned down Trump's request.
She told lawmakers on Wednesday, ahead of the meeting with President Trump, that she "will clearly explain what we can do and cannot do based on the Japanese law."
Legal Hurdles
Japan's unique legal system determines what the country can and cannot do when it comes to international disputes. Its constitution renounces the right to wage war as a means of settling such disputes.
In 2015, Japan passed security legislation reinterpreting the constitution, and allowing it to deploy the military for collective self-defense in case of an attack on Japan or an ally, which could result in a "survival-threatening situation."
Takaichi has carefully declined to make any judgement on the legality of the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran. Any judgement that the attack was preemptive or unprovoked could undermine the logic of deploying Japan's military, known as the Self-Defense Forces (SDF).
Despite the domestic popularity of Takaichi and her push for higher defense spending, there's little support for the war in Iran.
A recent poll for the daily newspaper The Asahi Shimbun shows 82% of Japanese do not support it, and more than half are not satisfied with Takaichi's reluctance to speak about it.
Japan's history of workarounds
Like in previous Japanese administrations, Takaichi may suggest a compromise. Japan sent minesweepers to the Persian Gulf in 1991, troops to Iraq in 2004, and a destroyer and patrol plane to the Gulf of Oman in 2020. In all these workarounds, the Japanese forces were legally required to stay out of active combat zones.
Former Japanese defense official Kyoji Yanagisawa argues that deploying minesweepers or warships to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict could only be justified by a "survival-threatening" situation for Japan, and could be seen as an act of war against Iran. "I believe that the practical implications of entering a state of war with Iran are far more serious than any legal violation," he says.
Yanagisawa played a key role in Japan's dispatch of troops to Iraq, but has since become a critic of Japan's military buildup.
"The Self-Defense Forces completed their mission in Iraq without firing a single shot and without a single casualty," he says. "If they were to suffer casualties in the Strait of Hormuz, it would be unprecedented in the history of the Self-Defense Forces."
Yanagisawa would like to see the SDF's zero-casualty record remain that way. Takaichi, meanwhile, wants to expand the SDF's offensive capabilities.
Other priorities overshadowed
Takaichi's visit was scheduled to come ahead of Trump's planned trip to China, in hopes that Takaichi could persuade Trump to help Tokyo in its dispute with China over the issue of Taiwan, or at least not hurt Japan's interests, if Trump strikes a deal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
But the war has now prompted Trump to postpone his trip to Beijing, and threatens to overshadow other issues, including Japan's promised $550 billion investment package in the U.S., in exchange for lower U.S. tariffs.
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