The U.S. and Japan were ‘the closest of friends’ when the Japanese PM visited in April. Today, the U.S. says Japan’s largest steel company is a national security ...
The U.S. and Japan were 'the closest of friends' when the Japanese PM visited in April. Today, the U.S. says Japan’s largest steel company is a national security threat.
I n April, the prime minister of Japan visited the U.S. He addressed Congress in English and said, “The people of Japan are with you, side by side, to assure the survival of liberty.” He promised 250 cherry trees to be planted on the Tidal Basin in Washington to celebrate the upcoming 250th anniversary of U.S. independence. He said, “Japan is the No. 1 foreign direct investor in the United States. Japanese companies have invested around 800 billion dollars, creating almost one million American jobs. These are good jobs with half a million jobs in the manufacturing sector alone.”
In April, the White House put out a fact sheet on the relationship between the U.S. and Japan. It said that the prime minister’s visit “reflects the upward trajectory of the U.S.-Japan Alliance as it evolves into a global partnership that promotes a shared vision of progress and prosperity for the future.”
It said, “Our defense and security ties form the core of our Alliance and are the cornerstone of regional peace and security. Recognizing that the Alliance has reached new heights, we plan to further bolster our defense and security cooperation to allow for greater coordination and integration.”
It said, “The United States and Japan plan to leverage our respective industrial bases to establish an Alliance defense production capacity to meet the demand for critical capabilities over the long term.”
That includes the co-production of missile-defense systems and fighter-pilot training equipment, the use of Japanese commercial shipyards to repair and maintain U.S. naval vessels, cooperation between both countries and Australia on drone technology, collaboration on cybersecurity, and greater science and technology collaboration between both countries’ defense agencies.
“The private sector in both of our countries recognize the incredible opportunities and promise of growing our commercial ties, especially in areas such as critical and emerging technologies,” the fact sheet said. It celebrated specific examples of major investments made by private firms in both countries, including those by Daiichi Sankyo, Toyota, Honda, UBE, Yaskawa Electric, Mitsui, and Fujifilm in the U.S.
“The United States and Japan are committed to strengthening our partnership to bolster cross-border investment and support financial stability,” the fact sheet said.
The statement also mentioned U.S.-Japan cooperation on AI technology, quantum computing, semiconductors, clean energy, supply-chain security, scientific research, telecommunications, infrastructure, nuclear power, aviation fuel, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology.
Today, an order signed by President Biden said, “There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that Nippon Steel Corporation . . . might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.” That order prohibited Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel, thereby blocking about $15 billion of investment in the U.S.
Are you alarmed that this supposed national security threat is doing business in the U.S. right now? Nippon Steel has facilities in Alabama, Kentucky, Indiana, and West Virginia. The West Virginia operation began in 1988. We must have just gotten really lucky for the past 37 years that this national security threat from Nippon Steel hasn’t caused us problems.
Also today, the U.S. approved the sale of $3.6 billion worth of missiles to Japan. Are you alarmed that a country with steel companies that present national security threats will be receiving $3.6 billion worth of American missiles?
You probably aren’t because you still believe what Joe Biden said he believed in April, namely that the U.S. and Japan are “the closest of friends.” This is a country with which the U.S. cooperates on its most critical industries and in which the U.S. has stationed over 50,000 troops. To call one of its steel companies a national security threat without any evidence is a slander of one of America’s closest allies by a lame-duck president who is acting at the behest of the United Steelworkers union, which opposes this acquisition, and for the benefit of U.S. steel company Cleveland-Cliffs, which lost the bidding war for U.S. Steel in 2023.
And if Biden hadn’t done it, Donald Trump said he would have done it upon assuming the presidency later this month.
Do you want to know why free-market supporters are generally skeptical of national security arguments for government intervention in the economy? This is why. Well-organized special interests defeat the national interest nine times out of ten in Washington. Politicians are self-interested just like everybody else, and they know it is more beneficial to them politically to use government power to concentrate benefits to special interests than it is to shun them for the national interest. To do it, they’ll even use “national security” as a cudgel against an allied country whose head of government was welcomed to the U.S. with open arms not even a year ago.