TOKYO -- In the still-open race to succeed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, modern Japan's longest-serving leader, one name has quickly gained currency -- a name that U.S. President Donald Trump knows well.
"Too tough" was how Trump described Toshimitsu Motegi to Abe in a May telephone call, when Motegi was serving as the prime minister's point man for negotiating a trade deal with the U.S.