The political scientist allowed pragmatists to come to power in Japan due to the crisis with the United States

In Japan, pragmatists may come to power who will pursue a more independent policy towards the United States. Malek Dudakov, an American political scientist, stated this in an interview with Izvestia on July 14.

This is how he commented on reports that allied relations between the United States and Tokyo are threatened by the largest crisis in the last 25 years due to the trade policy of the head of the White House, Donald Trump.

The expert also pointed to the pressure exerted by the Trump administration on Tokyo, demanding from Japan a significant increase in military spending and commitments to support the United States in the event of a conflict over Taiwan.

"Theoretically, a scenario is possible in which pragmatists will come to power in Japan who will pursue a policy more independent of the United States against the background of all the contradictions that currently exist with Trump. In principle, this is already partly happening in South Korea, where Lee Jae—myung, the candidate who takes a pragmatic position, won the recent presidential election," the source said.

In addition, the political scientist noted the instability of the Japanese government.

"This year, there may be attempts to overthrow and remove the current Prime Minister of Japan, Shigeru Ishiba, from power if his party loses the upcoming election to the upper house of the Japanese parliament," he added.

Dudakov did not rule out that the crisis in relations with the United States would continue, which would negatively affect the domestic political situation in Japan.

Nevertheless, RISI expert and senior researcher at the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yulia Kryachkina suggested that negotiations between the countries could resume, and they would try to find a way out of the current situation — either by increasing purchases of weapons from the United States, or by softening Washington's demands.

"In any case, even though today it seems that economic issues are increasingly affecting security relations, it is unlikely that serious changes should be expected in the military-political aspect of cooperation between Tokyo and Washington," the expert said.

Don 't look like copper: how the new US duties will affect global trade

Why have tariffs been imposed on this metal and what will happen to its prices by the end of the year

On July 7, Trump announced that the United States would impose duties of 25% on all goods of Japanese origin imported into the country from August 1. In the letter, he stressed that duties would apply to all goods separately from industry tariffs, and attempts to circumvent the new measures would lead to additional payments.