Japan has cancelled an annual security meeting with the US after the Donald Trump administration told the country it had to spend more on defence.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio and defence secretary Pete Hegseth were set to meet the Japanese defence minister Gen Nakatani and foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya in Washington on 1 July for annual “2+2” security talks, a reference to the two senior ministers involved on each side.
However, Japan cancelled the meeting after the US demanded Japan increase its defence spending to 3.5% of GDP, an increase on an earlier request of 3 per cent, according to a report on Friday by the Financial Times. This new demand was made the third-most senior official at the Pentagon Elbridge Colby, the paper added.
Without citing any reason, a US official asking to be anonymous confirmed to Reuters that Japan had “postponed” the meeting several weeks ago.
Japan and the US have not discussed these targets for higher spending, a Japanese foreign ministry official requesting anonymity told Reuters.
On Saturday, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said US allies in Asia need to spend 5 per cent of their GDP on defence.
“European allies are now setting the global standard for our alliances, especially in Asia, which is 5 per cent of GDP spending on defence. Given the enormous military buildup of China, as well as North Korea’s ongoing nuclear and missile developments, it is only common sense for Asia-Pacific allies to move rapidly to step up to match Europe’s pace and level of defence spending,” Mr Parnell told Nikkei.
In March, Mr Trump had said: “We have a great relationship with Japan, but we have an interesting deal with Japan that we have to protect them, but they don’t have to protect us.
“That’s the way the deal reads. We have to protect Japan. And, by the way, they make a fortune with us economically. I actually ask, who makes these deals?”
The deal Mr Trump is referring to is the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, signed by Japan and the US in 1951 and revised in 1960, which requires the US to defend Japan if attacked. The deal combined with Japan’s post-war pacifist constitution to provide the country with security guarantees, given it was obliged not to have an armed forces of its own. It did not include an obligation for Japan to defend the US in return.
As part of the agreement, the US is able to maintain military bases in Japan, key strategic footholds west of the Pacific.
Responding during a parliamentary session, Japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba said: “Japan has no obligation to protect the US, that is true, but Japan is obliged to provide bases for the US. I am surprised that President Trump said this.”
Japan’s previous prime minister Fumio Kishida doubled the country’s proposed defence spending from a previous cap of just 1 per cent in 2022, itself a controversial move for many Japanese people who still favour pacifism. One of the Japanese government’s top priorities at the start of Mr Trump’s second term was to convince him that this was already a big shift in Japan’s commitment to defence spending.
Mr Colby, who was then the nominee for US defence undersecretary, had said in March that Japan should go further and increase its defence budget to 3 per cent of its gross domestic product.
“It makes little sense for Japan, which is directly threatened by China and North Korea, to spend only 2 per cent,” he had said in a confirmation hearing before the Senate armed services committee.
Responding to Mr Colby’s statement, Mr Ishiba said other nations would not decide Japan’s defence budget.
“Japan decides its defence budget by itself,” Mr Ishiba told a parliamentary committee meeting. “It should not be decided based on what other nations tell it to do.”
Japan’s decision to cancel the 2+2 meeting comes while the two nations are in the midst of trade talks to avert Mr Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs of 25 per cent on Japanese cars and 24 per cent on other imports. The tariffs are currently paused until 9 July.
Japan is set to attend the Nato summit on 24-25 June in The Hague, where it is expected that Mr Trump will press his demand for European allies to boost their defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP.
No member of Nato currently spends 5 per cent of GDP on defence. That includes the US itself, which commits around 3.4 per cent. Poland is the closest to meeting the figure with 4.1 per cent, while the UK is ninth out of the 32 member states with 2.3 per cent.
