The U.S. government on Friday congratulated former Japanese defense chief Shigeru Ishiba on winning Japan's governing party's presidential election, which sets him up to be the country's next prime minister, and expressed hope to "cultivate even closer ties" with Tokyo.The White House has not made official comments on Ishiba's victory, but U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel promptly put out the statement in a brief post on X.The ambassador also said the United States is "looking forward to working with" him to "strengthen" its alliance with Japan. In a similar vein, a U.S. State Departme…READ FULL ARTICLE
