Category Archives: Shinzō Abe

Trump’s maximum pressure train hits buffers with Abe’s doomed Iran mission

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Japan’s prime minister isn’t the first leader to regret trying to do Trump a favor – but he must have known he was taking a risk

Shinzo Abe’s trip to Tehran this week turned out to be one of the more ill-fated mediation efforts of recent times.

What was billed as a grand gesture – the first Japanese leader to visit Iran in four decades – ended in humiliation, with split-screen television pictures showing Abe being told off by a stern supreme leader, while a thick plume of smoke rose from a burning Japanese tanker in the Gulf of Oman.

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Trump becomes first US president to watch sumo wrestlers battle it out in Japan – video

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Donald Trump presented a trophy to the winner of a sumo tournament, turning to personal diplomacy for the second day of a Japan visit shadowed by tough trade talk. But it was all smiles as the two leaders watched giant sumo wrestlers grapple on the final day of a 15-day tournament won by rising star Asanoyama. Trump, the first US president to watch sumo in the sport's homeland, waved to the audience as he entered the hallowed Kokugikan arena and then saluted them with applause as they waved and raised their phones to take photos. 

Trump fetes sumo champ in Japan before grappling with trade

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Trump fetes sumo champ in Japan before grappling with trade

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Visit to sumo wrestling’s spiritual home followed by golf and burgers as Abe tries to keep president on side

On one side of the sumo ring stood a tall, hefty man with an unconventional hairstyle, bowing and smiling as the crowd applauded; opposite Donald Trump stood a professional wrestler, who on Sunday became the first recipient of a winner’s trophy awarded by the US president during his state visit to Japan.

Trump had been spared the agony of watching the last five bouts of the 15-day tournament in the customary manner – seated cross-legged on a thin cushion. Instead, sumo authorities broke with tradition and provided near-ringside armchairs for the president and the first lady, Melania, and the Japanese prime minister, Shinzō Abe, and his wife, Akie.

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Trump arrives in Japan for ceremonial visit and trade talks

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Visit will stress ties between the two countries as tensions over exports rise amid the US-China trade war

Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, landed in Japan on Saturday for a largely ceremonial visit meant to showcase strong ties with Tokyo even as trade tensions loom.

The Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, will treat Trump to an imperial banquet and front-row seats at a sumo tournament during the trip, which lasts until Tuesday.

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Okinawa referendum rejects new US military base but Abe likely to press on

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Tokyo sees controversial plan for new base at Henoko as key to US security alliance

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has vowed to push on with the controversial relocation of a US military base in Okinawa, hours after the island’s voters overwhelmingly rejected the move in a referendum.

Just over 70% of voters – or 434,000 people – opposed construction of a new base on Okinawa’s northeast coast that will replace an existing US marine corps base 30 miles away. Just 19% voted in favour of the move, with turnout at 52%.

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Davos 2019: Mental health in focus; Abe, Merkel and Qishan speak – live

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Rolling coverage of the second day of the World Economic Forum, as Shinzo Abe, Angela Merkel and Wang Qishan all speak, and Prince William discusses mental health

At the Sustainable Development panel, Bono says capitalism has lifted people out of poverty, but warns:

“It is a wild beast. If it is not tamed it can chew up a lot of people along the way.”

@Lagarde says to close the development gap and achieve the SDGs, we need growth first. Secondly, domestic revenue mobilisation needs to increase, and thirdly there can be no white elephants and no corruption, which put off investors. #wef19

Just in: UK chancellor Philip Hammond has dropped off a Davos panel scheduled for Friday morning, on the state of the global economy, we hear.

He’s no longer listed as a speaker for the “Global Economy in Transition: Shaping a New Architecture” session, alongside the World Bank’s Kristalina Georgieva, South African central bank governor Lesetja Kganyago, economics professor Mariana Mazzucato, IMF chief Christine Lagarde and Haruhiko Kuroda of the Bank of Japan.

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May hopes Japanese PM will back Brexit stance in London visit

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Shinzō Abe will first visit the Netherlands, where many Japanese firms are relocating ahead of Brexit

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzō Abe, who is to meet Theresa May in London on Thursday, will underscore the damage Brexit is likely to have on Japanese investment in Britain by first visiting the Netherlands, the country to which many UK-based Japanese firms are redeploying ahead of the UK’s departure from the EU.

The choice of the Netherlands as the other stop on Abe’s mini-European tour is not a coincidence since he will also be given a chance to be briefed on how a no-deal Brexit could clog the flow of trade into Rotterdam, the main gateway for Japanese and British firms into the EU single market.

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