The U.S.-Japan alliance has never been only a military arrangement. During the Cold War, Japan and the United States saw themselves as part of the ¡°free world¡± confronting communism. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, they presented their partnership as one between countries sharing liberal values: democracy, human rights and a market economy. Security needs and economic interests were always fundamental, but the alliance was also legitimized by a common normative foundation.
That premise is now under strain. The second Trump administration appears to be moving away from the liberal values the United States long claimed to uphold. Instead, it is seeking to redefine Christianity as a central value of the American nation. If Washington ceases to place liberal values at the center of its diplomacy and instead foregrounds a national ideology rooted in Christianity, the consequences will extend to its allies. For Japan, whose postwar position has been tied to the U.S.-led liberal order, the implications are significant.
This brief examines the administration¡¯s Christian turn, its selective use of religious freedom toward China and the implications for U.S.-Japan relations.
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