Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever (N-VA) recently spoke to De Morgen about his upcoming summer holiday to Japan, and jokingly said he hoped US President Donald Trump "doesn't do anything strange" during his time away from Belgium.
De Wever said he is heading to the Land of the Rising Sun for two weeks this month as his youngest son is starting an Erasmus exchange year in the port city of Yokohama.
When asked by De Morgen about whether he would be able to switch off from politics, he responded: "Two weeks should be enough if they leave me alone", adding that he had to rush back from his last holiday in South Africa to make a statement on the war in Gaza.
He confirmed that the Federal Government cleared nearly 100 files before 21 July, leaving no outstanding political issues while he is away – but international affairs were another matter.
He said he hoped Trump "doesn't do anything strange during August" which might disrupt his holidays, saying that the US president had become noticeably more volatile in recent years.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever, King Philippe of Belgium, US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the 2026 World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Wednesday, 21 January 2026.
Credit: Belga / Belgian Royal Palace
The prime minister joked that he agreed to a holiday in Japan because he never thought his 21-year-old son, Simon, would actually move there.
De Wever admitted to the Flemish daily that his knowledge of Japan and East Asian history is relatively superficial and that he needed to do some reading beforehand.
His summer holiday reading also includes Mary Beard's 'Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old' and Sven Beckert's 'Capitalism: A Global History'.
The prime minister is reportedly planning to visit Hiroshima and sites connected with the 1945 atomic bomb, and hopes to climb Mount Fuji as well.
As a cat dad, De Wever said he would miss his feline adviser, but that Maximus would be in good hands with plenty of staff around to "serve and worship him".
