Trans-Pacific View | Diplomacy | East Asia

Toward a New ‘Normal’: The Recalibration of the Japan-US Alliance

Since the Cold War, Japan and the U.S. have both been seeking normalcy, but they define the term very differently.

U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae to deliver remarks to Yokosuka Naval troops aboard the USS George Washington at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan on Oct. 28, 2025.

The United States has never been a “normal country” – although it is difficult to find or define what that actually means – and has always, since its founding, been proud of its “exceptionalism.” The righteousness that has been one of the driving motivators of the republic has led it to take a moral stance on issues that are not directly related to its own material needs and to fight for values and principles rather than focusing purely on the defense of the homeland. However, if this way of behavioral instincts were to face a reckoning, the year 1991 provided the right opportunity to change course.

The Soviet Union, once an “evil empire,” and by then far less menacing, was gone, ending a half-century standoff between the two superpowers that had faced each other at the brink of nuclear Armageddon. The successful campaign and diplomatic coordination that defeated Iraqi aggression against Kuwait revived hopes for international governance and for multilateralism as a means of maintaining peace. The U.S. role of global policeman – a role Washington had concluded it needed to fill after Pearl Harbor in order to deter threats before they reached its shores – now seemed unnecessary, with the monsters abroad gone.

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The United States has never been a “normal country” – although it is difficult to find or define what that actually means – and has always, since its founding, been proud of its “exceptionalism.” The righteousness that has been one of the driving motivators of the republic has led it to take a moral stance on issues........

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