YIES

U.S. Ready to Work with Whoever Becomes Japan’s Next PM, Says U.S. Ambassador at Talk in Tokyo

The Yomiuri Shimbun
U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass gives a lecture organized by the Yomiuri International Economic Society, at the Imperial Hotel in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, on Thursday.

The Japan News

17:48 JST, October 16, 2025

U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass said that the United States would be ready to work with whoever Japan chooses as its next prime minister at the upcoming extraordinary Diet session, in a public talk in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo on Thursday.

The talk took the form of a dialogue between Glass and Shigeru Kitamura, who chairs the Yomiuri Research Organization and who was formerly the secretary general of Japan’s National Security Secretariat.

Glass was previously the U.S. ambassador to Portugal from 2017 to 2021 during the first Trump administration and has served as ambassador to Japan since April.

When asked by Kitamura about the upcoming summit between the next prime minister and U.S. President Donald Trump, Glass said, “I think we are ready and willing to work with anybody who’s the prime minister.” The ambassador noted that the U.S. would like to discuss a wide range of issues at the summit, including the Japan-U.S. trade deal and security issues.

Glass also mentioned that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would be visiting Japan shortly.

As to the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, Glass praised Japan’s contribution, saying, “The fact that Japan did not agree to the recognition of Palestine was an extremely big piece of the ability to get the peace plan done with Hamas.”

Prior to the talk, Glass delivered a lecture titled “Japan-U.S. Alliance — Present and Future.” He stressed the importance of the Japan-U.S. alliance in light of China’s increasingly hegemonic behavior and other challenges in the Indo-Pacific region.

“Over 80 years, we have shaped an alliance that has delivered peace, security and economic development across the Indo-Pacific,” Glass said. “We cannot rest on our laurels. We must modernize our alliance for the times we live in.”

The event was organized by the Yomiuri International Economic Society (YIES) and around 150 people attended, most of whom were business leaders.