In Japan, Cautious Optimism About Trump 2.0 and an Unusual Hit at the Box Office | Opinion
By Mark Joseph
With President Donald Trump’s return to power, Japan is grappling with what it will mean for America’s Pacific ally; What does Trump 2.0 mean for the aggressive impulses of China vis-a-vis its neighbors; the unpredictable North Koreans with their penchant for shooting rockets over the islands; the surging strength of the U.S. dollar against the yen, and most importantly, the overall relationship between the U.S. and Japan?
All of this and more was on the minds of the Japanese people as they took a break for their New Year’s holiday, the singular time of the year when they give one another permission to unplug and not engage in work of any kind.
But as the nation resumed its normal schedule after the holiday, the buzz seemed to be less about foreign policy and more on the theatrical opening of a unique/bizarre “movie,” The Solitary Gourmet, which consists of a strangely dramatic Anthony Bourdain-type character who travels around the world in search of the best soups he can find.
But unlike its U.S. counterparts, this one features a main character who samples food and drink as the audience hears his thoughts voiced over. You hear as he wonders if he should enter this restaurant or that one, and describes his feelings about what he’s seeing, hearing and tasting. After 13 seasons on television, it made its theatrical debut, opening at no. 3 at the box office.
The show is perhaps a diversion of sorts from the unease and uncertainty the nation faces. Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba met with Trump shortly after the president’s inauguration. Trump had invited Ishiba to visit him in Florida before the inaugural, but insiders say Japan’s version of The Swamp thought better of that idea.
As for the man on the street, reviews of Trump and Ishiba are mixed. A recently retired hotel cleaning woman has high hopes for Trump’s return to power, reminding all who will listen that she and Trump are the same age. She’s not sold on Ishiba yet but seems to be willing to give him a chance. She has definite views on the previous prime minister, who she believes failed because he tried to please everyone. Ishiba, she expects, won’t have that problem.
But to that point, a recent poll asked respondents whether Ishiba would be able to say no to unspecified hypothetical Trump demands. The results: 16 percent said yes, while a whopping 74 percent said he wouldn’t.
One prefecture over, in Saitama, the proprietor of the nation’s first monument dedicated to appeasing the spirits of aborted fetuses, has seen interest decline in recent years as the abortion rate has plummeted in his country. Japanese are having less sex, it would appear, and the hundreds of women who used to come to visit the “graves” of their near-offspring has slowed to a trickle. He mentions that he has a reservation for a party of 15 the following day, but on this day, there are no visitors in sight. He is firmly against the procedure, which he said doesn’t accord with his Buddhist beliefs, and insists that Japan’s demographic crisis can be traced to abortion, though few would agree with him. Japan’s birthrate is continuing its downward spiral, with a population expected to dramatically drop from 124 to 80 million this century. Without evidence, he insists there would be no population implosion without abortion.
North of Tokyo, in Tochigi Prefecture, a proprietor of a dairy farm which boasts thousands of visitors who come to sample ice cream and milk, ride horses, pet goats, shoot arrows and go fishing, is hoping there are no more pandemics in his future as the enterprise slowly recovers from the sharp downturn during Covid-19. It wasn’t a total loss however, as the farm pivoted to online sales of its product, catering to those who couldn’t venture out.
Across town an entrepreneur who manages 40 Airbnb’s is relieved to be back in business as he welcomes tourists, especially East Asians who are drawn by favorable exchange rates to visit Japan. A Japanese national who once lived in the U.S. with an American wife, he’s back in Japan now and says he’s grown more conservative since his youth, and more supportive of the likes of both Trump and Ishiba. He remains deeply saddened by the death of his favorite politician, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, felled by an assassin’s bullets.
What all these people across Japan have in common is a desire for a peaceful era ahead. They hope that President Trump’s America First agenda will also include them, along with their desire for peace and stability in a region which features more than one potential bad actor.
Mark Joseph is a film producer and author who most recently produced the film Reagan. He is also the producer of the documentary, Japan: Searching For The Dream.
