Donald Trump's stunning election victory may complicate Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to revive Japan's economy, underscoring the vulnerability of Abenomics to fluctuations in the yen and export profits.
Trump's win all but doomed the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which could have boosted Japanese manufacturers. Abe was counting on the pact as a catalyst for long-promised structural reforms in protected sectors of the economy. The premier swiftly scheduled a trip next week to meet with the president-elect in New York on Nov. 17.
"The U.S. turning inward and turning protectionist is quite a blow to the Japanese economy — I think Mr. Abe wants to talk to Mr. Trump to continue good economic relations and free trade between the two countries," Eisuke Sakakibara, a former head of currency policy at the Finance Ministry, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.