president. >> ivan watson live for us in tokyo. ivan, stand by again as we are looking at live images of the u.s. president at air force one there, air force one arrived. natalie, what would you say, maybe 14 minutes ago? >> just recently, yeah. >> and now on the ground.3 we're awaiting president trump to walk down the stairs. >> and the first lady will be with him of course. >> absolutely. >> and so ivan is giving us the rundown on this trip. yes, we've been saying a little more ceremony than substance. but the president very enthusiastic about being the first to meet the new emperor and to be treated to all kinds of japanese culture. >> reporter: it is going to be quite a show that the japanese are putting on for the american president. very important, he will be the first foreign leader to meet with the newly crowned emperor and the emperess. there will be a ceremony and also a banquet where they will be the guests of honor there. it couldn't be more japanese than the plan for him to attend the championships of sumo wrestling her

let me go back to ivan watson.n eye on the podiums where donald trump and shinzo abe are going to be giving a press conference we believe in a short amount of time. what do we expect from that press conference? >> we have already gotten a bit of a precursor where president trump and the japanese prime minister said they would be discussing in their bilateral talks trade, north korea, and other matters effecting the world. one subject that popped up with in a reporter's question was iran and the fact that japan had quite cordial ties with tehran and that president trump was open to that fact and was endorsing the possibility of talking to tehran and maybe even raising that scenario of a road leaving to tehran through tokyo and through shinzo abe. we may hear some more about trade talks though president trump has made it clear that more substantial discussions and any real concrete announcements would wait until possibly as late as august to allow elections in july to allow the political cycle to close here. clearly

ivan watson live in tokyo. thank you rch. >>> president trump took the side of kim jong un, over joe biden, misspelling the former vice president's name, and drawing criticism from the 2020 democratic contenders. >> it's just one more example of donald trump proving that he cares about donald trump, first, last and in between. and not protecting the interests of the united states of america. >> kim jong un is a murderous dictator, and the vice president biden served this country honorably. it's one more example of the way this president tries to draw attention to himself by saying things that shock the conscience. >> obviously we have a crisis in north korea, and we need to absolutely deal with it with a strategy, not with him doing foreign policy by tweet or lying to the american public and saying there's nothing to worry about. >> we don't want a war but nobody should be believing that this guy has anything in terms of his values with the united states. we don't need to be praising kim jong un. >> so biden ha

let's go to our ivan watson. he's in tokyo. he's been covering the president's trip. everything that will be happening in the next four days. the president spending quite some time there in japan. ivan, maybe you can talk about some of the things that the president addressed. one of them certainly was trade. and the hope of more investment in the united states. and less of a trade imbalance. >> that's right. i mean, he was very much in salesman mode here. he was, after all, addressing leaders of japanese corporations, calling some of them out, and thanking them for thin investmetheir investments u.s. economy. and trying to encourage more of the same to create more jobs in the u.s. i think the key thing that stuck out here was his aspiration to negotiate a bilateral trade deal between the u.s. and japan. these are the world's first and third largest economies. and he also singled out his trade negotiator bob lighthizer who was there in the crowd. now in months running up to his visit of president trump to japan, the trump administration had said that they wanted to ink

cnn senior international correspondent ivan watson joins me now from tokyo. ident trump was underscoring the fact that the bond between the u.s. and japan is ironclad but the way in which both leaders saw north korea and recent actions from the peninsula was not entirely consistent. >> reporter: no, there were divergences there, and in particular, it revolves around north korea's missile launches that took place twice earlier this month most recently on may 9th when north korea fired two short range ballistic missiles. the japanese prime minister who's hosting this whole affair said that those were direct violations of united nations security counsel resolutions. president trump was asked about this, and he had a different opinion. take a listen. >> he is going to try at some point. i'm in no rush at you will a. t -- at all. the sanctions remain. we are continuing to get the remains. a lot of good things are happening, and very importantly there's been no nuclear testing for two years. i looked at a chart the other day. during the past administration, there we

. >> ivan watson is following this story live at this hour in tokyo. we saw these two leaders on the stage putting forward a show of an alliance that is as described by the u.s. president steadfast and ironclad. mr. shinzo abe describing it as an unshakable bond. beneath the surface there does seem to be some daylight between the two leaders on the issues of security and on trade. >> reporter: yeah. i mean, this is a very strong alliance. let's put this in a perspective. you've got some 50,000 u.s. troops based in japan. the two leaders will be going to visit a u.s. navy base here in japan on tuesday before president trump departs. that said, they do have differing views on a couple of issues and that came out in this press conference. the japanese prime minister, for instance, saying that north korea's launch on may 9th of two short range ballistic missiles was definitely a violation of united nations security council resolutions. we've heard on saturday the white house's national security advisor john bolton say the same. president trump standing sid

>> ivan watson following this for us in tokyo. an, thank you. >>> we do want to bring in our pamela brown. she was there in the room as this joint news conference took place. so pam, talk to us about this situation. can you hear us okay? just nod if you can hear us. so basically what we saw is the two leaders there, u.s. president trump, and shinzo abe making, at pains, in actual fact to make it clear that their relationship was unshakeable, that it was ironclad. but we do know that problems persist between the two nations. we saw that for shinzo abe, very much the abductions, that his number one issue is that. and when we listen to president trump, he very much down played the situation as far as missile launches with north korea. so talk to us about >> reporter: you're absolutely right. it was a delicate dance when it came to north korea because the two leaders wanted to appear united on all things. but it was very clear that there are cracks and they're not on the same page when it comes to north korea. prime minister abe starte

here is ivan watson. >> reporter: on the first lady's birthday last month, the u.s. president welcomes shinzo abe to celebrate at the white house. >> mr. prime minister, my friend -- >> reporter: before they parted for dinner and cake, the prime minister invites president trump to tokyo to be honored as the first official guest to meet the newly crowned emperor. >> i said, gee, i don't know if i can make it. let me ask you a question, how big is that event compared to the super bowl for the japanese? and the prime minister said it's about 100 times bigger. i said, i'll be there, if that's the case, i'll be there. >> reporter: making good on his promise this weekend, trump's arrival launches a four-day state visit to japan, an honored meeting with the imperial couple is one of several events in a tailor made schedule. it follows abe's charm offensive as u.s. policy in asia grows more problematic. on his first full day in japan, they plan to play a round of golf, known as a corner stone of dploum si. abe gifting trump custom gold plated golf clubs. after the green, tru

ivan watson, cnn, malaysia. >> look at that shot. eye-opening story from ivan. bring in an environmental activist from break free plastic joining us from manila. i want to go back to 187 countries that agreed to control the movement of plastic within borders. we saw ivan's story, malaysia saying, we don't want this. the philippines are fighting with canada saying take your plastic back. talk to us about this issue and agreement we were talking about. >> hi, natalie. thanks. the agreement that took place at the conference of the parties just last week did not disappoint. for one, it's a crucial first step toward stopping the practice of using the developing world or lower income companies for plastic waste, especially those coming from rich countries. >> speaking of rich countries, why isn't the u.s. participating? >> the u.s. is not party to the convention. it's one of the countries not at the convention. nevertheless because of this agreement, the u.s. can no longer export the plastic waste to parties of the convention. that includes the developing countries. i

. >> senior international correspondent ivan watson joins us now from tokyo with more on all of this. good to see you, ivan. so what's been the overall assessment of how president trump's four day state visit to japan went and how problematic could the north korean issue end up being with mr. trump, making it clear he has no problem with kim jong-un's recent short range missile tests, a view not shared by japan's prime minister? >> reporter: well, this was as the japanese prime minister put it, a demonstration to people at home and abroad of the strength of the u.s.-japanese alliance. and it was very high on symbolism and on ceremony. but somewhat short on real substance. there were not -- there was not a trade deal announced, which the white house had wanted in the months running up to this trip. that can has been kicked down the road until august, at least after japan holds upper house elections in july. there weren't discussions about some of the shared security threats. north korea, of course, came up. and you had this peculiar situation where in one of the restricted bilateral me

. >> senior international correspondent ivan watson joins us from tokyo. what is the overall assessment of how president trump's four-day visit went in japan and of course this problem between the two leaders of north korea? both at odds essentially over the short-range missile test that north korea performed. >> reporter: rosemary, i think this was a visit that was high on ceremony and symbolism and shows of friendship and the strength of this alliance between the u.s. and japan. but it was a visit that was short on concrete substance, any major agreements that were announced. for example, the white house had said for months in the run-up to president trump's visit that it wanted a bilateral trade deal signed, and those trade negotiations have been postponed until at least after july of this year when japan is scheduled to hold elections for the upper house of its national assembly, its legislative body. so we had the alliance of these two countries celebrated, an alliance that its pillar is on security and on trade and cultural and political connections.

ivan watson following the story live for news tokyo this day. the summit seems to be off to i guess an awkward start with the president seeming to place his trust with the dictator of north korea which is japan's most direct threat. >> reporter: yeah, i mean this is one of the big issues for japan is north korea's nuclear weapons, its ballistic missiles, and president trump in his tweet directly contradicted not only japan but also his own national security adviser john bolton who told journalists here in tokyo on saturday that the short-range missiles that north korea fired earlier this month were definitely a contradiction of u.p. u.n. security council resolutions. in his tweet, president trump said hey, those where is small weapons that didn't really bother him though they bothered some others. the other key issue between japan and the u.s. is trade and there president trump tweeted that the two leaders were making progress but they were going to hold off on making a deal until after japan holds elections for the house of counselors in july.

ivan watson covering it for us in tokyo. thank you. >>> one person not throwing cushions, let's bring in inderjeet parmar, professor of international politics at city university of london joining us this hour. good to have you. >> very good to be here. >> let's start with the u.s. president notably at odds with his japanese counterpart on the issue of north korea. given the importance of this close relationship between japan and the u.s. on issues of security, does this signal that there is daylight between the two nations on north korea? >> i think that there clearly is. japan is right in the region and therefore more worried about the recent missile tests which are short range missiles than the united states as a mainland. although american forces are in the region. i think basically there is a situation here where there is two forces at play. south korea also have been quite soft line on the new missile tests. and that is that the united states wants to keep pressure on north korea as much as possible so there will be mil

ivan watson, cnn, tokyo. >> thanks, ivan. with me now is the senior associate for northeast asia at the woodrow wilson center, the asia program. >> thanks for having me. >> how important is the pomp and circumstance part of the visit with these two leaders? >> it's very important. the united states and japan share a lot of common values at a time when there's a great deal of uncertainty in asia, especially in east asia. and part of the success will be a true test of negotiations moving forward. but i do want to point out that japan is heavily invested in the united states. it is the third largest source of foreign direct investment into the united states, and it's created thousands of jobs, hundreds of thousands of jobs in the united states as well, and that is an issue that japan will continue to deliver to the trump administration. >> and is that a point of leverage then for the japanese? absolutely. to say that japan has been good on its word and providing really good jobs, competitive jobs companies like toyota earlier th

. >> live now to ivan watson, it seems during the final remarks by the u.s. president, talking about the upgrade to aircraft carrier, the u.s. president referenced the tensions with north korea. here it is. >> with this extraordinary new equipment, it will help our nations defend against a range of complex threats in the region and far beyond. >> the range of complex threats in the region and beyond, that's what we're talking about here. if this was a walkback by the president after defending the north koreans, it seems like weak tea. >> i don't think it sounded like a walkback. i don't think the president took any step back at all. if anything, he endorsed statements by kim jong-un and used them to slam his democratic rival in the u.s., joe biden. though he did not pick up on a north korean statement slamming john bolton, who he publicly undercut talking about missile launches that were violations of united nations resolutions. it was a four-day visit to japan, high on symbolism and ceremony with very little real substance announced. there was not a trade de