Tough Elections Loom over Biden’s Japan Summit

Japan’s decision to boost defense spending is also a helpful rhetorical weapon for Tokyo to quell doubts about its security commitments, experts say. Japan is currently undertaking a major defense buildup that will see defense spending rise to 2% GDP by 2027, as officials look to ward off North Korea, China, and Russia.

“I don’t think a second Trump presidency would be coming in with this view that somehow Japan is taking advantage of the U.S. security umbrella and not pulling its weight,” Lisa Curtis, a former Trump administration official and director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, told me.

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