Japan Adjusts to Global Changes

On Thursday afternoon, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe became the first foreign leader to meet in person with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump since he won the presidency Nov. 8. The two had an informal conference in New York City before Abe headed to Lima, Peru, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, where, among other things, the Japanese leader is expected to meet one-on-one with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two meetings could not be more indicative of Japan's precarious place in a rapidly changing world: Trump has repeatedly said he will scrap the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement and called for shifting more of the United States' regional security burden to its allies, which will disproportionately affect Japan. And Russia under Putin has chilled toward Japan as Russian relations with the United States have deteriorated, though with Trump in office that could soon change. The demise of the TPP,...