Japan cautiously prepares for change in U.S. leadership
The Japanese government is preparing to take policy measures in areas such as global warming, with an eye toward a transfer of power in the United States as former Vice President Joe Biden is gaining an advantage as votes are counted in the U.S. presidential election.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga repeatedly emphasized his proactive stance on climate change at a meeting of the House of Councillors’ Budget Committee on Friday.
“Active measures to combat global warming will lead to significant growth by bringing about changes in the industrial structure, the economy and society,” Suga said.
A target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, which Suga set in his first policy speech, was made in anticipation of the possibility of Biden taking office, according to sources close to the prime minister.
Biden has referred to a return to the Paris Agreement, an international framework for combating global warming, from which the U.S. withdrew under President Donald Trump. The Japanese government wants the U.S. and Japan to be in step in the international community.
A senior government official believes that Biden’s foreign and security policies will be moderate toward Japan, and similar views have been spreading throughout the government.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama, with whom Biden worked as vice president, became in 2014 the first U.S. president to explicitly state that the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture are within the scope of Article 5 of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, which obliges the United States to defend Japan. The Japanese government plans to confirm the same stance with the United States as soon as possible, if Biden is elected to the White House.
“[Even after the presidential election,] the Japan-U.S. alliance will continue to be the crux of our foreign and security policy and the foundation of peace, prosperity and freedom for the Indo-Pacific region and the international community,” Suga said at an upper house budget committee meeting on Friday.
In the meantime, even if Biden is reportedly assured of his victory, Suga will not immediately hold congratulatory telephone talks, but instead will wait to see how other countries act.
“It’s not a good idea to provoke Trump, who is claiming irregularities in vote counting,” a senior Japanese official at the Foreign Ministry said.