President-elect Trump has had some strong words against America’s traditional allies, including Japan. Yet the US-Japan alliance is critical for the Trump administration’s policy towards East Asia.

Many questions will be asked on what Donald J. Trump’s policy towards Asia will be, now that he has successfully powered his way into the White House. With his election as the President of the United States on 9 November 2016, a focus will be on the US-Japan alliance that received a special mention in his election campaign.

Trump criticised the US-Japan alliance on several fronts, namely the imbalance in the alliance where Japan will ‘watch Sony television’ rather than come to defend the US when America is attacked, and Japan’s insufficient financial contribution in maintaining the US military presence in Japan. The US-Japan alliance serves not only the US and Japanese interests, but it is also widely perceived as a critical source of stability by most, if not all, states in East Asia. In light of Trump’s comments, it is timely to assess what place the US-Japan alliance will have in Trump’s strategy towards East Asia.

… Bhubhindar Singh is Associate Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), and Kei Koga is Assistant Professor at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.