Japan—Not Just Europe—Should Spend More on Defense

Although President Donald Trump has put his “reciprocal” tariffs on hold for three months, he jacked up tariffs to a whopping 145 percent on China. This policy differential is just one indicator that Trump and his administration see China as the primary economic, military, and political threat to the United States. Another indicator of this thinking was the outcome of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s recent trip to Japan and the Philippines.

Although Donald Trump has often criticized European countries—pressuring them over defense spending, questioning the U.S. commitment to NATO, and undermining Western support for Ukraine—he and his advisors appear to be taking a markedly different approach in East Asia.

In both Japan and the Philippines, Hegseth has sought to calm East Asian fears about the Trump administration’s commitment to the security of the region. The contrast in administration approach between the regions is striking.

To the U.S. foreign policy establishment, Trump’s strange affinity for Russian president Vladimir Putin and disdain for NATO are unnerving. Nonetheless, Trump is correct in his view that China—whose GDP is almost nine times larger than Russia’s—is a bigger threat to the United States than Russia. This threat assessment has become even more unbalanced as U.S.-assisted Ukraine has attritted and exhausted the Russian military in that war, making its threat to Europe more, not less, manageable in the long term by the wealthy countries of the European Union.

On his recent trip, however, Hegseth told his Japanese counterparts that Trump wants a stronger alliance with the island nation to counter China. Hegseth promised to accelerate Joe Biden’s plan to create a new joint U.S.-Japan military command, which Hegseth dubbed a “war-fighting headquarters.”

Hegseth pledged that the United States would help Japan achieve “peace through strength” to deter China. Speaking at the Army War College on April 23, Hegseth stressed that “America First does not mean American alone. America and Japan stand firmly together in the face of aggressive and coercive actions by the communist Chinese.”

Although Japan plans to raise its historically low defense spending to 2 percent of GDP by 2027, the Japanese defense minister Gen Nakatani did not mention further Japanese defense hikes or greater host nation support for the 50,000 American troops stationed in the country.

Yet Trump’s planned strengthening of the U.S.-Japan alliance ironically cuts against further Japanese security self-reliance. This is exactly what this wealthy country needs, just as its European counterparts do. If the United States continues to protect all these countries, they will not do enough themselves—such free-riding is common in any alliance.

At a minimum, the Japanese and Europeans need to be the first line of defense against their respective potential adversaries, calling on U.S. assistance only in dire circumstances. These countries would be better off being more self-reliant in defense because U.S. assistance has become more tenuous, not only because Donald Trump is president but also because the United States, with a growing $37 trillion national debt, can no longer afford to police the world.