Can President Trump Avoid Sabotaging the U.S.-Japan Alliance?

Michael Fuchs and Brian Harding write about how President Trump should handle the U.S.-Japan alliance.

On February 10, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will come to the United States to meet with President Donald Trump, marking the first meeting between the prime minister and Mr. Trump since the inauguration and the second since the U.S. presidential election. But will Mr. Trump recognize a good thing when he sees it and not damage one of America’s most critical alliances?

The U.S.-Japan alliance is crucial to American interests in East Asia and around the world. Transformed from enemies to friends, today the alliance is the cornerstone of security in East Asia, with Japan hosting 54,000 U.S. troops that help preserve an increasingly fragile regional peace. And Japan is no freeloader: Tokyo pays $4 billion annually to support U.S. presence, making the arrangement more cost effective than having these forces stationed in the United States

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