Trump’s shadow hung heavily over summer developments in East Asia, as covered in Japan’s media. There was talk of US isolation, retreat in leadership, and failure in managing North Korea. Yomiuri on July 31 cited press accounts abroad without any heartening news for the Japanese public; explanations ranged beyond Trump to the broader US society—inequality, cultural despondency, and so on—as the US image was falling. As Washington pursues two extremes, relying heavily on China to curb North Korea—to the detriment of resisting China’s advances in the South and East China seas—while also planning a military assault on North Korea that raises the threat of its retaliatory attacks on Japanese soil, Japan veered from its talk of a “US-China honeymoon” excluding Japan, as in Yomiuri on June 26, to out-of-control US behavior a month later. Despite Abe’s supposed close ties to Trump, the mood in Japan was troubled.

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