Pete Hegseth says US planning a ‘war-fighting’ base in Japan

Good morning and welcome back to FirstFT Asia. In today’s newsletter:

• The US defence secretary’s visit to Japan

• The earthquake rescue effort in Myanmar

• Trump says he is ‘pissed off’ with Putin

Donald Trump’s defence secretary said the US had begun upgrading its military forces in Japan to set up a “war-fighting” headquarters, as the allies attempt to build a more formidable deterrence against China.

Washington’s plan: Defence secretary Pete Hegseth said the upgrade, the first phase of a reorganisation of US forces in Japan announced under the Biden administration, would improve their ability to co-ordinate operations with Japan’s Self-Defence Forces and “keep the enemy guessing” by creating strategic dilemmas in the region.

Concerns about the US-Japan alliance: Trump has questioned the validity of long-standing alliances, unsettling Nato allies and causing reverberations across Asia. Japan, which considers itself Washington’s closest ally in the region, depends heavily on the US security umbrella. Trump earlier this month described the US-Japan treaty as “an interesting deal with Japan that we have to protect them, but they don’t have to protect us” — comments that raised fears among Japanese officials.

Hegseth, however, called Japan a “model ally” of the US at a joint press conference with his Japanese counterpart, Gen Nakatani. “President Trump has also made it very clear . . . we’re going to put America first. But America First does not mean America alone,” he said.

Read more about the US defence secretary’s visit to Japan.

Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:

• Japanese economy: A batch of data is due, including Tokyo inflation figures and preliminary February retails sales and industrial production.

• China-Russia relations: Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi visits Russia for talks on issues including the Ukraine war. (AFP)

• France: Far-right leader Marine Le Pen faces a faces a potential ban of up to five year on running for office in a verdict expected today in her embezzlement trial. (Associated Press)

Five more top stories

1. Four of China’s biggest banks will raise a combined Rmb520bn ($72bn) through share sales to investors including the Ministry of Finance, as Beijing seeks to shore up its vast banking sector against pressing economic woes. The rare government-directed injections are part of a series of official support measures that have since last September aimed to restore confidence in the world’s second-largest economy.

2. International efforts to get aid into Myanmar intensified yesterday, days after a devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake. The country’s military government said that 1,700 people had been killed, a figure that is expected to rise. Responding to the earthquake is set to be a huge challenge for Myanmar, which has endured decades of conflict and repressive military rule. Read more about the rescue efforts.

3. Donald Trump said yesterday he was “pissed off” with Vladimir Putin for dragging his feet in talks over a ceasefire with Ukraine, as the US president threatened secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian oil if no deal is agreed. Trump’s outburst at Moscow is a shift in tone for the US president, who for weeks blamed Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, for being reluctant to strike a deal. 

4. Norway should drop a ban that is preventing its sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, from investing in defence companies such as Boeing, Airbus, Lockheed Martin and Honeywell, the two main opposition parties have said ahead of parliamentary elections later this year. Norway’s $1.8tn oil fund has been barred from holding stakes in most defence companies since the early 2000s.

5. Greenland’s new prime minister has insisted that Donald Trump will not take control of the Arctic island, insisting the territory will “determine our own future”. Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who became prime minister on Friday after the island held a general election this month, was responding to the US president’s latest outburst in which he once again refused to rule out military force to take Greenland.

News in-depth

The FT spoke with tourists to the US who have suffered hostile treatment at the hands of border guards since Donald Trump’s return to the White House. “I still have nightmares [about the experience] and I’m not yet back to normal,” said one German visitor who was shackled and jailed for 16 days before being allowed to fly back to Germany.

We’re also reading . . . 

• The great disentanglement: A long rebalancing of investor portfolios is likely to be under way that could be painful for the US, writes Katie Martin.

• Advertising on X: Big brands are allocating small amounts of their advertising budget to Elon Musk’s X, seeking to avoid being seen as boycotting the platform.

• Young men in crisis: The real problem is one that hand-wringing over “toxic masculinity” won’t solve, writes Camilla Cavendish.

Chart of the day

Indians have become heavy investors in gold after a downturn in local equities, with a boom in exchange traded funds driving purchases as the commodity’s price hits record highs.

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Take a break from the news . . . 

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