Welcome to the President's Inbox. I'm Jim Lindsay, the Mary and David Boy's Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.

This is the sixth episode in a special presidential transition series on the President's Inbox.

From now until inauguration day, I'm sitting down with experts to

unpack who will staff the Donald Trump administration and how it will likely approach the many

foreign policy challenges it faces. This week's topic is, Japan reacts to Trump's victory.

With me to discuss how Japan views Trump's return to the White House,

in what his presidency might mean for U.S.-Japanese relations, is Sheila Smith.

Sheal is the Johnny Mero Senior Fellow for Asia-Pacific Studies here at the Council.

She has written extensively on Japanese politics and foreign policy. Her most recent book is Japan Rearmed, The Politics of Military Power. And she recently wrote a piece for the diplomat

titled Governing from Weakness, the LDP under

Prime Minister Ishaba Shiguru.

Shila, thank you very much for joining me on the president's inbox.

Thank you, Jim.

It's a pleasure, as always.

So let's begin with the big question.

Donald Trump wins on November 5.

What has the reaction been in Tokyo?

So in Japan, there is a fairly broad sense that this wasn't a big surprise.

I think there's a little bit of worry about what a second Trump administration might bring.

The Japanese, as you know, had a fairly

reasonably comfortable relationship with President Trump during his first term in office.

Then Prime Minister Shenzhou Abe, who has since passed away, very early on established a

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