Both the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and main opposition Democratic Party (DP) fired off a barrage of questions about future Japan-U.S. relations during the plenary session of the House of Representatives on Jan. 23 -- the first Diet debate since President Donald Trump took office.
Both ruling and opposition parties are paying close attention to how Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will deal with Trump's new administration.
During the interpellation at the lower house plenary session, Democratic Party Secretary-General Yoshihiko Noda said at first, "Policy changes by the United States will certainly affect the world's politics and economy." He then asked Abe about his views of the fact that Trump did not touch Tokyo's and Washington's shared values -- freedom, democracy, human rights and rule of law -- in his inauguration speech while declaring a policy of "America first."
Prime Minister Abe replied, "Japan and the United States are unshakable allies bound tightly with common values."
Citing incidents where Trump put pressure on specific businesses such as Toyota Motor Corp. for their activities through his Twitter posts, Noda said, "The government should say what must be said when he (Trump) makes outrageous statements." Noda cautioned against Abe who was seeking to hold talks with Trump at an early date.
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