When it comes to the Japanese, the deal of a lifetime is the president’s for the taking

President Trump is known the world over as the ultimate dealmaker. As already demonstrated with the North Koreans, he is always ready to make deals, even unorthodox ones, with friend and foe alike.

On a recent trip to Japan, I was reminded of the deal that is there for the taking: a bold move that would give Trump a victory regarding looking out for the American taxpayer, solving a thorny issue that has bedeviled the Japanese for decades, and easing tensions over American military bases in Japan.

If Trump ran on “the issues of building a border wall and making America great again, his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe ran on a promise that he would finally bring closure to the families of as many as 800 Japanese allegedly kidnapped by the North Koreans in order to provide valuable language skills and other intelligence information to improve its ability to spy on Japan.

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Some 42 years after the kidnapping spree began, the North Koreans have only admitted to 13 abductions however, and insist they’ve all been resolved. The Japanese claim otherwise and are passionate about resolving all cases of their missing citizens to the satisfaction of their loved ones.

The case of the kidnapping of then-13-year old Megumi Yokota in 1977 is especially compelling. North Korea strictly enforces its official state atheism, a fact painfully weighing on her family, one of a small minority of Japanese Christians, who, even today, prays fervently for a miracle.

Although Prime Minister Abe has sought to engage the president on the issue, it has not been an priority for President Trump. But if it was, if Trump were to make it clear to North Korea’s leader that any deal with the North would require resolution of the kidnappings, the North would likely oblige with full cooperation on the matter and there would be no blame assigned to the current North Korean leadership for something that happened two administrations ago in a different century.

President Trump, on the other hand, has issues of his own with his electorate as he prepares to run for re-election. For a president who speaks often about the U.S. being taken advantage of by friends whom the U.S. pays to defend, Japan sticks in his craw.

According to Japanese government statistics, the Japanese pay up to 86 percent of the costs of maintaining U.S. troops in Japan and have done so for decades, but Trump the negotiator might like to see that number hit 100 percent.

President Trump might also ask the Japanese to waive the annual $150,000 lease fee they  charge for the U.S. embassy in Tokyo -- a fee that may not amount to much but carries important symbolic value as the U.S. is, in Trump’s view, asked to pay a fee to house Americans who are charged with Japan’s defense.

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As a gesture of good faith for Japan’s willingness to shoulder a greater burden of the cost of America’s defense of her, the president might also grant the Japanese the same joint governance over U.S. military bases in Japan that the Germans and Italians enjoy,

President Trump could also make another concession the Japanese have long sought: the right to prosecute American service members who commit crimes against Japanese citizens.

While Trump is unlikely to allow his soldiers to rot in Japanese prisons, he may be willing to allow them to be held by U.S. forces, be tried in a Japanese court and then be returned to the U.S. to serve time in a U.S. prison after a judicial review by U.S. courts to ensure a just sentence.

With a little old-fashioned horse-trading, the president and the prime minister will be able to tell voters that they followed through on their campaign promises and for many Japanese, including the heartbroken parents who last saw their daughter as she left for another day in junior high school 42 years ago, the president may reach MacArthur-like stature.