Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is making every effort to establish friendly relations with US President Donald Trump at the US summit on Oct. 10. Abe will try change President Trump's negative view towards Japan by putting large-scale US investment plan by Japanese major corporations and government funds.
According to the Financial Times (FT) Japanese government is investigating the size of US investment in Japanese companies. Abe is expected to spend billions of dollars on US infrastructure investment, such as high-speed high-speed rail. Last week, Abe met with Toyota Motor President Akio Toyoda and discussed the issue ahead of the summit.
Sadayuki Sakakibara, chairman of the Association of Japanese Business Managers, emphasized, "Since the United States is an important economic, security, and politically important country in Japan, we emphasize that Japanese companies invested 400 billion US dollars in the US and 1.7 million jobs in this summit. "We have to tell them that we are helping the US export," he added.
Toyota chairman Ryuji Nakamura, who is also the chairman of the automaker, Toyota has invested $ 10 billion in the US market in January and promised to create more than 400 jobs at the Princeton lab. Softbank will also invest $ 50 billion over four years.
Abe's biggest mission at this summit is to build friendly relations with President Trump. The two leaders will hold a golf tournament at the Marago Resort in Florida on November 11. In this process, the two countries are aware of the situation and plan to communicate the current situation in Japan.
Abe's main concern is the exchange rate. President Trump recently criticized the phenomenon, calling Japan "a currency manipulator". Abe is strongly opposed to the allegations. To avoid this, Abe is expected to propose an investment called the US-Japan Growth and Employment Initiative. .
The initiative included creating 700,000 jobs in the United States and creating new markets worth $ 450 billion over the next decade. It is also known to offer high-speed trains to Dallas-Houston, LA-San Francisco. It is hoped that if the high-speed train line is built, it will be possible to export "Shinkansen" in Japan.
Japan is planning to support the government for such investment in the United States. It plans to raise funds through the Japan Bank for International Cooperation Fund or the Infrastructure Fund linked to foreign exchange reserves. Government pension funds are also likely to invest in the US as large-scale infrastructure investment is possible. The Japanese government encouraged investment because the United States is planning tax breaks for domestic investment.
But there is skepticism about Abe 's plan. It is a concern that Japanese corporations and government funds can go beyond what they can afford. "We can not completely change the company plan because of President Trump," said one corporate official.
A Japanese financial industry official pointed out that "it is concerned that Abe is making too big a promise to President Trump," and that tax issues have not yet been clearly defined.
In addition, public investment in the construction of high-speed trains was also pointed out that shinkansen exports could be hit by the "Buy American" policy. It is expected that the Trump government will concentrate on trade barriers and boosting US manufacturing, making it difficult for Abe to strongly claim this part.