(Bloomberg) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken lauded the close economic and security partnership between the US and Japan after a controversial move by US President Joe Biden to label Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp. as a national security risk.
Most Read from Bloomberg
Blinken met with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya on Tuesday in Tokyo as part of a global trip as his stint as secretary of state draws to a close. The scheduled visit has been overshadowed by Biden’s decision last week to block a move by Nippon Steel to buy US Steel Corp. on national security grounds.
“Our economies are extraordinarily intertwined,” Blinken said after his closed-door meeting with Ishiba. “We are the largest investors in each other’s economies. We work together to strengthen and build more resilient supply chains, critical mineral security, shaping the rules of things like artificial intelligence.”
The remarks were jarring coming so soon after Biden’s high profile move to bar a Japanese company from making a major investment in the US. Blinken didn’t address the decision in his remarks and ignored reporters’ questions about it, an indication of the rare point of tension between the close allies.
According to an account from Japan’s foreign ministry, Iwaya and Blinken exchanged views on the deal “and reaffirmed the importance of Japan-U.S. economic relations, including investments by Japanese companies in the U.S.”
It wasn’t immediately clear if the issue was raised in Blinken’s meeting with Ishiba, who said on Monday that he wanted an explanation from the US on why the proposed deal entails national security risks.
Earlier on Tuesday, Nippon Steel Chairman Eiji Hashimoto said the company wasn’t giving up on the deal, shortly after it and US Steel filed US lawsuits to rescue the acquisition.
Publicly, Blinken’s Japanese counterpart also stuck to highlighting the strength of the bilateral relationship, which is anchored by a large US military presence in Japan.
“The Japan-US partnership grew stronger than ever in the past four years,” Iwaya said during opening remarks at his luncheon with Blinken.
Biden’s plan to block the Nippon Steel deal created divisions among his leadership team, Bloomberg has reported. Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan each privately pitched Biden an option to allow the deal with conditions.
Story continues
Now that a decision has been made, it’s unlikely to be overturned. President-elect Donald Trump, who is set to return to the White House in about two weeks, has also vowed to block the deal.
On Monday, Blinken visited South Korea to also reaffirm US security ties with Seoul just as North Korea launched what appeared to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile toward its eastern waters. During Biden’s presidency, Washington forged close security relations with Seoul and Tokyo, but with Biden’s departure, all three leaders behind the improved ties will be gone.
“My last trip as secretary brings me to Japan,” Blinken said. “It points to the centrality of the US and Japan alliance, partnership for the United States, the importance that we attach to it. And we’ve seen that alliance develop in extraordinary ways, moving over time from bilateral relationship focused on issues between us to a regional focus and now to a global focus.”
–With assistance from Alastair Gale.
(Updates with Blinken’s remarks, detail on talks with Iwaya.)
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.