WASHINGTON — No foreign leader has spoken more often with President Trump than Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan. But when Mr. Trump welcomes Mr. Abe to his Palm Beach estate on Tuesday, tensions over trade and North Korea will pose the first real test to a relationship that has mainly blossomed on the fairways.

Golf is not on the leaders’ official schedule this time, and that may be just as well. Mr. Abe was blindsided in early March by Mr. Trump’s decision to meet North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un. He was stung even more two weeks later when the president exempted every major American ally, except Japan, from stiff new tariffs on steel and aluminum.

American and Japanese officials said they expected Mr. Abe, who is a hard-liner on North Korea, to warn Mr. Trump about the traps he faces in talking to Mr. Kim. They also expect him to confront the president on trade, something he has avoided since the two men first met, out of fear that it would stir Mr. Trump’s grudge against Japan, dating back to the 1980s, over its surpluses with the United States.

Mr. Trump injected even more uncertainty into the meeting by announcing that he would consider rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a regional trade pact, anchored by Japan, that he pulled the United States out of in his first week in office. But he also reiterated his determination to negotiate a new trade agreement directly with Japan, which Mr. Abe has resisted, tweeting that Japan “has hit us hard on trade for years!”