With Mr. Trump warning Toyota of a “big border tax” on the company if it built a new plant in Mexico and telling American business leaders
that Japan purposely devaluates the yen for economic advantage, Mr. Abe is concerned about how Mr. Trump’s “America First” policies could affect Japanese companies and the country’s broader economy.
Trump and Abe to Talk: Why They Are Meeting and What They’ll Discuss -
HONG KONG — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, the first world leader to meet Donald J. Trump after the
election in November, plans to meet with the president in Washington on Friday in the Oval Office.
Now that Mr. Trump has formally abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership multilateral trade deal — on which Mr. Abe expended considerable domestic political
capital — Mr. Abe will be looking to sound out Mr. Trump on the possibility of negotiating a future bilateral trade deal between the two countries.
Other companies, including Sharp and Fuji Heavy Industries, have also recently talked publicly about existing plans to expand or build new factories in the United States, while Nisshinbo Holdings, an environmental and energy conglomerate
that makes auto parts, said it would abandon a plan to build a car parts factory in Mexico.
Mr. Abe has said that Mr. Trump’s criticisms about the yen are “undeserved.” It is true
that the value of the yen has fallen steadily as Japan’s central bank has injected cash into the economy, a policy that Mr. Abe will most likely try to explain to the president.
According to the Japan Business Federation, Japanese companies have directly invested more than $400 billion in building factories
and other facilities in the United States, creating about 1.7 million jobs for American workers.
In December, SoftBank, the telecommunications and internet company, said it would invest $50 billion in the United States, a move
that the company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, said would create 50,000 jobs.