February 9, 2025

Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Tamura Tomoko on February 8 issued a statement after Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru and U.S. President Donald Trump held a summit meeting in Washington. The full text of the statement is as follows:

Japan’s subservient and dangerous diplomatic stance centered on the ‘inviolable Japan-US alliance’ revealed yet again

February 8, 2025
Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair TAMURA Tomoko

At today’s Japan-U.S. summit meeting, Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru remained submissive and refrained from criticizing the series of controversial remarks and actions by U.S. President Donald Trump, including his recent proposal to expel people in Palestine’s Gaza Strip in disregard of the international order based on the UN Charter and international law as well as his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, which turns its back on the urgent challenge requiring global cooperation. The prime minister agreed to further “enhance U.S.-Japan Alliance deterrence and response capabilities” and pledged to continue with Japan’s huge military buildup beyond FY 2027. The summit again exposed Tokyo’s subservient and dangerous diplomatic stance which considers the Japan-U.S. military alliance as inviolable.

President Trump has met with criticism from the United Nations and governments in, among others, European and Middle Eastern countries after he proposed the expulsion of Gazans and an American takeover of the Gaza Strip at the meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The criticism is reasonable as such actions are clearly in violation of the UN Charter and international law as well as the established international consensus on the two-state solution. Despite this, PM Ishiba did not even touch on the issue, let alone criticize his U.S. counterpart, at the summit meeting. This is a grave problem.

On the issue of the climate crisis, PM Ishiba said nothing critical about the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and instead promised to buy American liquefied natural gas to reduce the U.S. trade deficit. With this LNG purchase, PM Ishiba expressed his support for President Trump's denial of global climate efforts. Tokyo’s stance is sure to draw international criticism.

PM Ishiba at the meeting expressed his intention to take the Japan-U.S. alliance to new heights and agreed to further “enhance U.S.-Japan Alliance deterrence and response capabilities”. The joint statement following the summit stresses the needs of “upgrading the respective command and control frameworks of U.S. and Japanese forces” and “increasing bilateral presence in Japan’s Southwest Islands”. This is clearly aimed at raising the bilateral war preparedness to a new level with a view to increase the military capability to respond to China.

It is grave that in the joint statement, it is asserted that “[t]he United States welcomed Japan’s commitment … to fundamentally reinforcing its defense capabilities beyond FY 2027.” Currently, the Japanese government is aiming to increase its military spending to 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) in FY 2027, but the pledge of further massive military build-up after FY 2027 is an extremely serious problem.

The joint leaders’ statement also confirmed the “vital importance” of the steady implementation of the construction of the new U.S. military base at Okinawa’s Henoko. There is absolutely no future in continuing with the construction of the base, which has turned out to be a clear political, technical and financial failure.
There has been a continuous series of sexual assaults committed by U.S. soldiers in Okinawa and it is also inexcusable that PM Ishiba did not express his protest or call for corrective measures to address the issue at the summit meeting.

During this period, despite the fact that the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Suffers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the issue of nuclear disarmament was not discussed at the summit. On the contrary, it declared the further strengthening of “extended deterrence,” including with U.S. nuclear weapons. This goes against the wishes of many Japanese citizens and people around the world who long for a “world without nuclear weapons.”

The JCP strongly urges the Japanese government to break away from the subservient and dangerous diplomatic stance centered on the “inviolable Japan-U.S. military alliance.” What Japan should do now is not to carry out a massive military build-up that will intensify military tensions in East Asia and increase the risk of war. Japan should cooperate with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), strengthen an inclusive framework for all countries in the region, such as the East Asia Summit (EAS), and pursue peaceful diplomacy that makes use of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution to create peace in East Asia, as the party has made clear in its “Proposals for Peace Creation in East Asia”. The JCP is determined to do its utmost to achieve this.