On Friday, Ishiba is set to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House, in the first major indication of how the new U.S. administration will interact with the two Asian democracies.
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Business ties with Japan have been strained by the $15 billion bid by its largest steelmaker, Nippon Steel, for Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, which then-President Joe Biden blocked last month citing national security concerns. Trump also opposes the deal, which Nippon Steel says it has not given up on.
The blocking of the deal is unlikely to fundamentally alter the U.S.-Japan relationship, said Anthony Rapa, partner and co-chair of the International Trade practice group at Blank Rome in Washington, given both countries are more concerned with Indo-Pacific security and countering China.
“That said, the rejection of the deal genuinely did sting, considering the historical closeness of the two nations, Japan’s standing as the top U.S. investor, and the fact that no Japanese investment had ever been blocked on national security grounds before, at least not publicly,” he said in an email.
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This article was written by Jennifer Jett, Arata Yamamoto, and Stella Kim and published in NBC News on February 7, 2025.
