Japan has never been so closely attached to the United States as it is today. The military alliance has reached an apogee different from Japan’s hands-off approach to US ventures, which are not centered on the immediate defense of Japan. Prime Minister Abe’s attempts to address the historical gap in their relationship—evident from his speech before a 2015 joint session of Congress and 2016 joint visits with President Obama first to Hiroshima and then to Pearl Harbor—have showcased shared values, as in his frequent references to the universal values long-championed by the United States. The fracas over his visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in late 2013 seems long-forgotten, especially at a time when President Donald Trump eschews values in his foreign policy narrative. Even if differences over trade are resurfacing as the US-Japan consensus on TPP has ended, it does not seem at all likely that there will be a reversion to the mutual suspicions of the 1980s-90s when trade disputes were just the tip of the iceberg. Not only realism, but values are perceived as solidifying today’s increasingly trusting relationship.

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