Photo/Illutration U.S. President Donald Trump with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the Oval Office of the White House on Feb. 7 in Washington (AP Photo)

Would this analogy be considered rude?

The president of a subcontracting company visits a client. He greets the new, eccentric president of the client company.

In a position where his livelihood depends on this person, he offers a couple of compliments to the new boss of the crucial business partner and politely requests the continuation of their usual contract.

For now, he gets an OK, but the future remains uncertain.

This is how the first meeting between Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and U.S. President Donald Trump looked. Ishiba, with great reverence, addressed Trump as “Your Excellency, the President” and praised him as a leader who seemed to have been re-elected with the belief that he was "chosen by God.”

Trump, for his part, mistakenly referred to Nippon Steel Corp. as “Nissan” and repeatedly mentioned the name of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

I have no intention of sneering at Ishiba’s behavior. His flattery reflects Japan’s pathetic diplomatic portrait itself. Even if one stages it beautifully as entering a “golden age,” the Japan-U.S. relationship has never been truly equal.

During the past 100 and dozens of meetings with U.S. presidents, successive Japanese prime ministers have strived to manage this relationship well.

One managed to ensure that he and the U.S. president were on a first-name basis, calling each other Ron and Yasu, and another took the trouble of spending a day playing 27 holes of golf with the president.

Were all these desperate sales efforts to forge a "relationship of trust" and somehow make an inroad with the vital trading partner through direct talks?

Historian E.H. Carr points out in his renowned book, “The Twenty Years' Crisis,” that what matters in international politics are military power, economic power and “power over opinion.”

The political leader of a smaller country is always required to master “the art of persuasion.”

Eighty years after the end of World War II, the United States is moving in a dangerously uncertain direction. Japan cannot afford to loudly correct this course, nor can it afford to simply be swept along with it.

We must face the harsh reality of our situation as it is.

—The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 9 

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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