Hosting Japan’s leader first, Biden signals new global priorities

When Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide becomes, on Friday, the first foreign leader to meet with President Joe Biden at the White House, it will break a long and pretty consistently kept tradition.

The first foreign leader to visit the new U.S. president is a distinction generally reserved for the British prime minister to highlight the “special relationship.” Making Mr. Suga the first says everything about America’s shifting focus from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

A reordering of U.S. global priorities was also on display this week as President Biden announced the definitive withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 – the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that launched America’s longest war.

But Mr. Suga’s invitation underscores how Japan, long a stalwart if low-profile and underappreciated ally, is

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