Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe has called on companies and investors in his country to gather “tweetable” figures of their US investment plans that he can present to President Donald Trump when they meet on Friday.
The Financial Times reports that executives at three top Japanese companies said government’s officials had been in touch asking for investment numbers.
Mr Abe will arrive in the US on Friday, accompanied by his finance, foreign and trade ministers.
He is scheduled to play a round of golf with Mr Trump, in a match-up he hopes will build closer personal ties, according to Reuters, despite Mr Trump in the past criticising Japan as an unfair trade partner.
"We’re going to have a round of golf, which is a great thing," Mr Trump said in the interview on Sunday, according to a transcript made available to Reuters by the White House.
"That’s the one thing about golf - you get to know somebody better on a golf course than you will over lunch."
Mr Trump added it was be a good thing if the US could “get along” with other countries.
The primary aim of Mr Abe’s trip is to “reconfirm the importance of the US-Japan relationship in politics, economics and security”, Sadayuki Sakakibara, chairman of Japan’s Keidanren business federation told reporters, according to the Financial Times.
Mr Trump has previously criticised the lack of access to the Japanese auto market for US producers and has accused Tokyo of using monetary policy to devalue its currency.
In November, Mr Abe became the first foreign head of state to meet with Mr Trump after his election in an effort to strengthen ties between the two countries. The Japanese leader made a stopover in New York on his way to Latin America to congratulate Mr Trump.
At the time he called him a "trustworthy leader".
