TOKYO — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis assured Japan ’s prime minister on Friday that the United States would stand by its mutual defense treaty with the country, despite statements by President Trump during last year’s campaign that suggested he might pull back from American security commitments in Asia.
“I want there to be no misunderstanding during the transition in Washington that we stand firmly, 100 percent, shoulder to shoulder with you and the Japanese people,” Mr. Mattis said at the start of a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Mr. Trump, when he was running for president, had complained that the defense treaty was one-sided, even suggesting that the United States should threaten to withdraw from it unless Japan did more to compensate Washington for helping to defend its territory.
“You always have to be prepared to walk,” Mr. Trump said in August. “I don’t think it’s going to be necessary. It could be, though.”
With North Korea threatening to test an intercontinental ballistic missile and China claiming sovereignty over nearly all of the South China Sea, the Trump administration is now emphasizing its “ ironclad ” commitment to the security of Japan and South Korea.
Still, Mr. Trump’s conflicting signals and his transactional approach to diplomacy have made allies nervous. So even as the president shakes up Washington, Mr. Mattis has scored points in Asia by emphasizing that the United States’ relationship with its allies had not fundamentally changed.
In Japan, that included assurances about Article 5 of the treaty, which commits the United States to helping defend territory that Japan administers should it be attacked.
“Due to some of the provocations out of North Korea and other challenges that we jointly face, I want to make certain that Article 5 of our mutual defense treaty is understood to be as real to us today as it was a year ago, five years ago, and as it will be a year and 10 years from now,” Mr.
