U.S. President Praises Japan for Stepping Up Assist Efforts to Secure the Strait of Hormuz

Japan PM's X Account

U.S. President Donald Trump and Japan's PM Sanae Takaichi.

U.S. President Donald Trump praised Japan for “stepping up” to assist in efforts to secure the Strait of Hormuz, “unlike NATO” during a meeting on Thursday with Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi after her landslide electoral victory.

Before the meeting, Japan, as well as Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands had released a joint statement expressing their readiness to “contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait.”

President Trump had called on Japan and other countries to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, but Takaichi had reportedly said Monday that there were no plans to dispatch naval vessels to escort boats in the Middle East.

The Japanese PM's office also said in a post on X that there was “no specific request from the United States to Japan for the dispatch of vessels.”

Japan’s prime minister on Tuesday said that the government was considering what could be done within the framework of the country’s law. Japan’s Self-Defence Forces are governed by its pacifist constitution, that renounces war and the threat or use of force for settling international disputes.

During the meeting, the U.S. President referenced Pearl Harbor.

When asked by a Japanese reporter on why the U.S. did not inform allies such as Japan before carrying out the attacks against Iran on 28 February, the U.S. president said it was to maintain the element of surprise.

“"We wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?” President Trump replied when a journalist asked why he had not told allies about his war plans.

President Trump was referencing the surprise Japanese attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet in 1941, which saw the deaths of over 2,400 personnel and drew the U.S. into World War II.

President Trump said that the surprise attack on Iran had helped the U.S., adding that it “knocked out 50% of what we anticipated” in the country within the first two days.



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