Donald Trump and the Japan Tractor Rhetoric
If there is one country whose people no longer find Donald Trump funny, it’s surely Japan. The isolationist rhetoric of the likely White House candidate rests on shamelessly demonizing several countries, among them Japan. The real estate giant has accused Tokyo (as well as Beijing, as it happens) of manipulating its currency in order to unfairly compete against American businesses, thereby taking the advantage on the chessboard of trans-Pacific trade.
Donald Trump was outlining his intentions at the end of the recent Super Tuesday, with the finesse of which only he is capable. After being saddened by the fact that one of his friends had decided to buy construction machinery from the Japanese [company] Komatsu rather than the American Caterpillar, he added that, should he be elected, he would make sure that only load trucks made in the U.S. would be used to build a vast wall that he wishes to put up on the Mexican border. That speaks volumes.
It is a fact: Tokyo weakens the yen in an attempt to boost its economy. However, Donald Trump’s recent remarks represent a backward-looking caricature, reminiscent of Japan in the 1980s, which was considered a credible rival of the United States. Since then, after two decades of almost zero growth, the Land of the Rising Sun has been seen as an oversized outsider and today’s globalized economy means borders are far from clear. The city of Peoria, the headquarters of Caterpillar where Trump recently held a forum, also hosts a Komatsu factory.
This “Japan bashing” trend is not only outdated; it is also historically ill-informed. Donald Trump accuses Japan of taking advantage of American military protection. The reality is quite different: on several occasions (the Cold War, the “containment” of China) Japan has acted as an outpost for American power, in terms of both ideology and strategic positioning.
The Japanese-American alliance has several biases, but we must acknowledge its longevity (70 years!) and its ability to maintain the status quo in the Asian region, something that is increasingly polarized elsewhere in the world. If Donald Trump had just been elected and questioned the foundations of this alliance, Japan might be tempted to dramatically escalate its militarization, seeing itself more isolated in the context of China’s nervousness regarding the issue of Japanese rearmament. This spiral would plunge the entire Asian Pacific area into instability, a region that is essential to the global economy.
Donald Trump was outlining his intentions at the end of the recent Super Tuesday, with the finesse of which only he is capable. After being saddened by the fact that one of his friends had decided to buy construction machinery from the Japanese [company] Komatsu rather than the American Caterpillar, he added that, should he be elected, he would make sure that only load trucks made in the U.S. would be used to build a vast wall that he wishes to put up on the Mexican border. That speaks volumes.
It is a fact: Tokyo weakens the yen in an attempt to boost its economy. However, Donald Trump’s recent remarks represent a backward-looking caricature, reminiscent of Japan in the 1980s, which was considered a credible rival of the United States. Since then, after two decades of almost zero growth, the Land of the Rising Sun has been seen as an oversized outsider and today’s globalized economy means borders are far from clear. The city of Peoria, the headquarters of Caterpillar where Trump recently held a forum, also hosts a Komatsu factory.
This “Japan bashing” trend is not only outdated; it is also historically ill-informed. Donald Trump accuses Japan of taking advantage of American military protection. The reality is quite different: on several occasions (the Cold War, the “containment” of China) Japan has acted as an outpost for American power, in terms of both ideology and strategic positioning.
The Japanese-American alliance has several biases, but we must acknowledge its longevity (70 years!) and its ability to maintain the status quo in the Asian region, something that is increasingly polarized elsewhere in the world. If Donald Trump had just been elected and questioned the foundations of this alliance, Japan might be tempted to dramatically escalate its militarization, seeing itself more isolated in the context of China’s nervousness regarding the issue of Japanese rearmament. This spiral would plunge the entire Asian Pacific area into instability, a region that is essential to the global economy.
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