Bilateral Coordination on North Korea
The delegation visit came as North Korea was accelerating the pace of its missile tests. The sense of concern in Tokyo about Pyongyang’s weapons program was palpable, and a number of Diet members urged the United States to increase its pressure on China in order to get it to crack down more harshly on trade with North Korea. Some clearly were worried that the United States may eventually opt for a deal with Pyongyang that prevents it from developing nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach the United States in return for tacitly accepting the development of warheads that could only travel shorter distances but still reach Japan, and one former defense minister, Itsunori Onodera, argued that even these intermediate-range missiles would in fact target the United States—specifically the US military bases in Japan—and not just Japanese population centers.

Trade and Taxes
The 2017 delegation had deep expertise on trade and financial issues, and the US-Japan economic relationship became a central topic in many of their discussions. Prime Minister Abe expended significant political capital negotiating the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) with the United States and 10 other countries, and many of the leaders who met the group expressed dismay at President Trump’s withdrawal from the deal. Several Diet members displayed limited enthusiasm about the subsequent US push for a new bilateral trade agreement with Japan, arguing that it would not be as helpful for either side as the TPP would have been, and they revealed their hopes that if Japan and its other 10 partners proceed to launch the TPP without the United States, Washington might eventually return to the fold.

The issue of tax reform also featured prominently in the groups’ discussions. Japan recently lowered its corporate tax rate and the participants discussed lessons that could be taken from Japan’s experiences to implement a similar reforms in the United States in a revenue neutral manner. They explained how, for the Trump administration and the US Congress, the next legislative priority for this year is tax reform, once healthcare legislation comes to a vote.

The Trump Administration and Global Governance
President Trump announced his intent to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord while the group was in Japan, and this further fueled concerns from the Japanese side about whether the United States is willing to project global leadership in the way it has in the past. While acknowledging that the Trump presidency marks a distinct departure with the past, delegation members stressed the point that American governmental institutions ensure a degree of continuity in foreign policy. The discussion of US politics took center stage in a public seminar where the Congressional staff shared their thoughts on the Congressional agenda and the Trump administration’s policy approaches with more than 80 policy experts. Delegation members from both parties surprised the attendees by explaining how much bipartisan agreement and cooperation there actually is behind the scenes in Washington, especially in the halls of Congress, on a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues, even though the media tends to paint a picture of constant conflict.

Lessons from Hiroshima
In a two-day visit to Hiroshima, delegation members spoke with local leaders about their views of US-Japan relations and, in one remarkable encounter, they heard from an atom bomb survivor, Keiko Ogura, about how she managed to overcome that harrowing experience. The firsthand account of the human toll of nuclear weapons struck a particular chord after a week of policy discussions on North Korea’s nuclear program, and the example of how Ogura has devoted her life to sharing the lessons from Hiroshima with Americans and others around the world demonstrated how much progress has been made in bridging the gulf that once divided Japan and the United States.