Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, left, shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on Feb. 7. (Kotaro Ebara)

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba avoided disagreeing with U.S. President Donald Trump and raising sensitive subjects along with changing his meandering speaking style to ensure their first summit went smoothly. 

Ishiba revealed some of the “measures” he took to navigate the Trump “minefield” in a news program of a private TV network, where he appeared as a guest on Feb. 9.

Along with trying not to argue with Trump in their meeting in Washington on Feb. 7, Ishiba also refrained from talking about revising the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, which he has long championed.

The prime minister also admitted that he changed his manner of speaking, which has often been criticized for rambling and taking forever to get to the point

“If I said ‘no’ to him, everything would be disrupted,” Ishiba said about Trump on the Nippon Television Network Corp.’s news program. “He is said to hate being argued with, so I didn’t.”

“I also tried not to beat around the bush,” he added.

Regarding his decision to not talk about his opinions on security issues, Ishiba explained, “If I expressed my own preferences from the beginning and the meeting fell apart, nothing would move forward.”

He said he recognized that “a certain amount of time is needed” to increase trust between Japan and the United States.

Ishiba also said, “If you keep talking in a roundabout manner, the time would just be taken up with that,” revealing that he ditched his unique talking style.

Ishiba explained that he had devised a way of expressing his concerns to Trump.

“If you abruptly point out ‘the rule of law,’ he would feel like, ‘Are you lecturing me?’ But if you say, ‘Changing the status quo by force is not good, is it?’ it becomes, ‘Yes, it is not.’ It means almost the same as saying the rule of law, but it still makes a big difference by how you say it.”

When asked if Ishiba said anything at the summit about Trump’s controversial remark of the United States “taking ownership of” Gaza, the prime minister's reply indicated that the topic was not raised.

“It’s not that Japan is uncritical or anything," he said. "If we discussed that topic in the limited time that we had, the discussion would have ended right there. It would have become a big debate.” 

Ishiba also explained about the notes frequently handed to him by Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and others who attended the meeting, saying, “The notes said things like, ‘We should wrap it up here.’”

As the portion open to the media at the beginning of the meeting went longer than expected, the notes urged Ishiba to move onto the next agenda item, saying, “If you keep going on like this, the meeting time will be over.”

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