With the advent of the Trump administration, would not, first, Russo-US relations improve, allowing Japan to make progress in negotiations on the Northern Territories with Russia? Until early this year, within the Japanese government, there were expectations of this sort. However, from just before the Trump administration took office on January 20, doubts began floating as a scandal unfolded in US political circles about whether there were improper relations among those close to the President Donald Trump and the Russian authorities. When April arrived, the United States, by conducting a military strike in Syria, worsened its relationship with Russia. For these reasons, Trump, who had sought to engage in improving relations with Moscow, now found that his hands were tied. Also, as the Democratic Party deepened to the White House and the ruling Republican Party, with few personnel being selected for State Department posts, there was no way to get started revising policy toward Russia. Persons connected to the Japanese government looked askance at US-Russian relations, which were left hanging, anxious that Japan’s relations with Russia would also not move forward.

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