Tokyo —
Months before she became Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi said she’d been invited to meet US President Donald Trump.
It was November, just after his election victory and several figures close to Trump had urged her to visit Washington, she posted on her official X account.
But she declined, insisting then-Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba should be the first Japanese lawmaker to meet the new US leader.
“However, I aim to work hard toward holding a position that would allow me to meet him in a dignified manner someday,” she wrote.
That “someday” has arrived.
Takaichi’s first major test on the global stage comes as she heads to the ASEAN summit in Malaysia and the APEC meeting in South Korea, trips that will reveal how much of her trademark conservative rhetoric she brings into office. But the most closely watched moment will come between those summits, when Trump visits Tokyo to meet Emperor Naruhito and sits down with Takaichi for the first time on Tuesday.
Aboard Air Force One on his way to Asia, Trump spoke highly of Takaichi.
The pair spoke on the phone Saturday, in what Trump called a “very good
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