Japan’s new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, is preparing for her first meeting with US President Donald Trump this week, and her most powerful diplomatic tool may not be policy but personal history — her deep connection to the late Shinzo Abe, Trump’s closest ally in Asia. Takaichi became Japan’s first female prime minister last week. She will meet Trump in Tokyo on Tuesday as part of his state visit. While she doesn’t share Trump’s love of golf or hamburgers, she is expected to lean on her ties to Abe, her mentor and political role model, to build rapport with the American president. “She will be looking to cloak herself in the mantle of Abe to persuade Trump that she is his woman in Asia and a steadfast partner that he can count on,” said Mira Rapp-Hooper, a partner at the Asia Gro

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