Japan's new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi leaves the prime minister's office in Tokyo to be formally inaugurated in a ceremony with Emperor Naruhito at the Imperial Palace on Tuesday. Kyodo News/SIPA Tokyo —

Months before she became Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi said she’d been invited to meet US President Donald Trump.

It was November, just after his election victory and several figures close to Trump had urged her to visit Washington, she posted on her official X account.

But she declined, insisting then-Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba should be the first Japanese lawmaker to meet the new US leader.

“However, I aim to work hard toward holding a position that would allow me to meet him in a dignified manner someday,” she wrote.

That “someday” has arrived.

Takaichi’s

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