Prime Minister’s Office of Japan
Japan has cancelled a high-level annual security meeting with the United States after the Trump administration pressed Tokyo to significantly increase its defence budget, according to a report by the Financial Times on Friday.
The meeting, known as the “2+2” security dialogue, was scheduled to take place on July 1 in Washington and would have brought together U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and Defence Minister Gen Nakatani. However, Tokyo withdrew from the talks following Washington’s renewed demand that Japan raise its defence spending to 3.5 percent of its gross domestic product — up from an earlier request of 3 percent, the FT said, citing unnamed sources familiar with the negotiations.
Adding to the confusion, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported Saturday that the Trump administration had gone even further, calling on its Asian allies, including Japan, to commit 5 percent of GDP to defence — a figure that has caused alarm in diplomatic and political circles. A Japanese Foreign Ministry official, speaking anonymously to Reuters, rejected those claims, asserting that there have been no discussions with the U.S. regarding 3.5 or 5 percent spending targets. The official also stated he was unaware of the Financial Times report.
He explained that coordinating such four-party meetings is always logistically difficult, and noted that Secretary Hegseth is currently preoccupied with escalating tensions in the Middle East. A U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to Reuters that Japan had indeed “postponed” the meeting — a decision made several weeks earlier — but did not provide a specific reason for the postponement. A separate non-government source familiar with the matter also confirmed Japan had pulled out but lacked details on the rationale.
Asked about the FT report, U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce declined to comment during a regular press briefing. The Pentagon also offered no immediate response. Meanwhile, Japan’s embassy in Washington did not reply to requests for comment, and the country’s Defence Ministry and Prime Minister’s Office were unreachable outside normal business hours on Saturday.
The Financial Times report also stated that the request for increased defence spending was made in recent weeks by Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s third-ranking official. Colby has recently come under scrutiny for initiating a review of the Australia-U.S. nuclear submarine project — a move that has also unsettled another close Indo-Pacific ally.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has previously pushed back against American pressure on the issue. In March, he publicly stated that Japan alone decides its national defence budget, a pointed rebuttal to Colby’s suggestion during his nomination hearing for undersecretary of defence for policy that Japan should ramp up military spending to counter China’s rise.
This latest dispute unfolds against a backdrop of tense trade negotiations between Japan and the U.S., as President Trump continues to push a global tariff agenda. The FT also linked Japan’s decision to cancel the July 1 meeting to the country’s upcoming upper house elections on July 20, which are expected to serve as a crucial test for Prime Minister Ishiba’s minority coalition government.
The development also comes ahead of next week’s NATO summit in Europe, where Trump is reportedly preparing to reiterate his call for U.S. allies — this time in Europe — to boost their defence budgets to 5 percent of GDP, a demand that is expected to provoke renewed debate within the alliance.
