When Shinzo Abe begins his week-long tour of the US today, Washington will treat him as a friend. As well as being welcomed by President Barack Obama at a state dinner, Japan’s prime minister will address a joint session of Congress.
In spite of reservations in Washington about Mr Abe’s nationalist tendencies, for the most part the US applauds him as the most coherent leader Japan has had in a generation. Not only has he launched Abenomics, a plan to revive the economy that still hangs tantalisingly in the balance. He is also putting his country on the path to a more robust defence policy, something Washington has been urging on a reluctant Tokyo for decades.
This show of goodwill is the right approach. For all his flaws, Mr Abe is on balance a good thing for a country that has drifted too long under a succession of fleeting, nondescript leaders. Yet Washington should not back him under all circumstances. That is especially true when it comes to relations with China. Above all, Washington must not give the impression that it wants to use Japan as a tool of containment. If it looks as though the US and Japan are ganging up on China, Beijing is likely to conclude that there is no peaceful path to its legitimate ambitions. The debacle over the China-led Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank — boycotted by both Washington and Tokyo — is a case in point.