Japan tariff negotiator Akazawa to hold more trade talks in U.S. this week
Japan's top tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, said on Saturday he planned to visit Washington next week to hold further ministerial-level talks with the United States.
Tokyo hopes to clinch a deal by an August 1 deadline that will avert President Donald Trump's tariff of 25% on imports from Japan.
"I intend to keep on seeking actively an agreement that is beneficial to both Japan and the United States, while safeguarding our national interest," Akazawa told reporters in the western region of Osaka.
Akazawa was visiting Osaka to host a U.S. delegation, led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, that participated in the U.S. National Day event at World Expo 2025.
Akazawa said he did not discuss tariffs with Bessent.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yomiuri Shimbun
6 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Trump Agreed to Tariff Deal With Japan After 70-Minute Talks; U.S. President Tried to Trade Concessions for 1% Reductions
There was just about one week remaining until the Aug. 1 deadline when Japan and the United States reached a 15% tariff deal. Tokyo had managed to avoid the worst-case scenario of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration levying duties of 25% from next month. Japan succeeded in lowering not only what Trump calls 'reciprocal tariffs,' imposed on dozens of countries including Japan, but also the automobile tariff that was a top priority for this nation. Patience Economic revitalization minister Ryosei Akazawa faced off against Trump at the White House on Tuesday. The talks had been arranged just the previous day and represented the first such meeting since April. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio were also present. According to sources involved in the negotiations, the U.S. side made detailed demands — asking Japan, for example, to provide a certain item in return for lowering tariffs by 1%, and to increase rice imports and boost investment and support for semiconductors. Trump was said to have pushed for a deal in which he would lower tariffs by 1% in exchange for each concession. 'Mr. Trump made demands, citing specific figures. It felt like we needed at least 10 people to handle it,' one source said. In response, Akazawa patiently persuaded Trump, using various bargaining chips. After about 70 minutes of talks, Trump finally agreed, stood up and asked Akazawa for a handshake. 'Automobiles are Japan's bedrock' In the negotiations that began in April, Akazawa prioritized the revision of a proposed automobile tariff. In their first face-off at the Oval Office, Trump threatened Akazawa, saying steel was the bedrock of America, and Akazawa riposted with 'Automobiles are the bedrock of Japan.' As negotiations progressed, the Japanese side concluded that it was impossible to get the United States to withdraw its demands and shifted its goal to a reduction. The United States and the United Kingdom reached an agreement on May 8 in which the U.S. levy on British vehicles was dropped to 10% in exchange for British carmakers being limited to exporting 100,000 cars a year to the United States. Japan has a bitter history of voluntarily restricting its automobile exports to the United States in response to trade friction in the 1970s. Focusing on avoiding a limit on the quantity of its auto exports, Japan gradually lowered its goal, believing that 'if the United Kingdom was hit with 10%, it will be hard for Japan to get a 10% tariff,' according to a Japanese government official. The negotiations made significant progress in mid-May, according to Japanese government officials. The Japanese side presented investment plans in nine areas, including automobiles, iron and important minerals and also proposed the integration of supply chains. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and others praised the proposals, and an agreement was reached between the ministers at the end of May. Before the Japan-U.S. summit in June, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told those around him that 'negotiations are 90% complete.' However, Trump was not satisfied with the plans and increased pressure on Japan, saying Japan was 'very tough' and 'so spoiled.' He hinted at raising tariffs to 30%-35%. Mission accomplished Nevertheless, Japan did not change its proposals. Instead, it changed the way it prepared documents and explained them in order to gain Trump's understanding. Lutnick, meanwhile, explained the proposals to Trump nearly 10 times, and the green light was given for an agreement in the middle of July. The day before Tuesday's meeting, Lutnick invited Akazawa to his home to rehearse the meeting. After the meeting with Trump, Akazawa posted on X 'Mission accomplished.' A senior government official recalled: 'Only Trump has the authority to make the final decision on the numbers. Some countries have had their decisions overturned at the last minute. We could not let our guard down at all.'
Japan Times
16 hours ago
- Japan Times
Trump says Tokyo agreed to buy U.S. defense gear, clashing with Japan's account
Did this week's U.S.-Japan trade deal also involve spending on defense? Donald Trump seems to think so. Japan, not so much. Touting the surprise trade agreement with Japan on social media, the U.S. president claimed Wednesday that Tokyo 'had agreed to buy BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF MILITARY AND OTHER EQUIPMENT." His comments came a day after Japan's top tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, told reporters in Washington that the new trade deal "does not include anything related to defense spending." Media reports quoting sources close to the talks also said that security issues had not been part of the trade discussions. It was not immediately clear if Trump was referring to pending arms deals with Tokyo. The U.S. has over $20 billion in active government-to-government sales cases with Japan under its Foreign Military Sales system as of January, U.S. State Department data shows. These purchases include advanced F-35 stealth fighters and Tomahawk cruise missiles. Japan acquires more than 90% of its defense imports from the United States and has expressed growing interest in even more advanced and interoperable technology as part of its 2022 Defense Buildup Program. The U.S. president has long taken a transactional view of what he says are Washington's 'unfair' alliances, issuing demands and threats during his first term and into his second that allies Japan and South Korea shoulder a larger security burden — or risk his ire. Tokyo, however, had been largely successful in fending off calls by Trump and his team to link security issues — including defense spending and host-nation support for the 54,000 U.S. troops in Japan — to the tariff negotiations. Just hours ahead of the first round of U.S.-Japan tariff negotiations in April, Trump claimed that 'the cost of military support' would be part of the talks. Although the move spooked Tokyo, the issue was effectively shelved after Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and his team repeatedly emphasized that the two issues must be dealt with separately while pointing to Japan's own unprecedented defense spending hike — to 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2027. But that didn't stop Trump's Pentagon from setting a 'global standard' for Japan and other U.S. allies to spend 5% of GDP on defense. Indeed, even if defense was not a part of the trade deal — implicit or otherwise — the issue is sure to become a focus of future bilateral talks. Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said in April that Tokyo 'intends to continue discussions on an appropriate track starting next year' on a cost-sharing agreement for hosting U.S. troops in Japan before its expiration in 2027. Japanese defense planners, meanwhile, are already weighing the possibility of even further boosted defense spending. A Defense Ministry panel of experts has reportedly recommended that the government consider hiking defense spending beyond 2%, and Ishiba has said that future budgets "may top 2%, if needed,' depending on the security environment.
Japan Times
a day ago
- Japan Times
Japan and U.S. both claim win in surprise 11th-hour tariff deal
Japan and the United States reached a surprise trade deal on Tuesday in Washington after months of fruitless negotiations and some tense moments, with both sides taking victory laps and Japanese markets cheering the news. The United States is promoting it as the deal of the century. For Japan, it was a mission-accomplished moment. The agreement, the details of which are still being ironed out, includes a 15% "reciprocal" tariff on most Japanese goods and 12.5% on cars, with 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum remaining unchanged. Japan has agreed to buy more rice, improve market access and invest in a $550 billion fund that will support strategic industries and technologies in the United States. 'There has never been anything like it,' U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social. The reciprocal tariff is 10 percentage points lower than the rate that had been scheduled to kick in on Aug. 1, while the auto tariff has been cut by half from 25%. The total for autos will now be 15%, including 2.5% duty on autos charged independent of Trump tariffs. 'I firmly believe we have achieved an agreement that protects what needs to be protected, while aligning with the national interests of both Japan and the United States,' Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief tariff negotiator, said Tuesday in Washington. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba noted that the 15% reciprocal tariff is the best rate achieved by a trade surplus country. The Nikkei 225 stock index rose 3.51% in trading Wednesday, with Toyota up 14.35% and Honda 11.15%. The yen traded steady in the ¥146 to the dollar range. Washington assured Tokyo that for strategically important goods, such as semiconductors and pharmaceutical products, tariffs for Japan will always match the best rate charged to other countries, Akazawa told reporters. He also said that Japan will increase American rice imports under the current minimum access framework, which has allowed roughly 770,000 metric tons of foreign rice to enter Japan annually tariff free. Japan and the United States will make efforts to strengthen supply chains through Japanese investment in the U.S., with a focus on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, steel, shipbuilding, critical minerals, aerospace, energy, automobiles, artificial intelligence and quantum technology. Japanese government-affiliated financial institutions will provide up to $550 billion in equity investments, loans and loan guarantees, Akazawa said. He noted that defense spending targets were not included in the deal, and that Japan made no commitments to lower tariffs on U.S. products, as they are already very low. Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said on Wednesday that the deal does not include any agreements on the yen-dollar exchange rate. 'I'm kind of surprised," said William Chou, deputy director of Hudson Institute's Japan Chair, in discussing the auto tariffs. The fact that Japan was able to cut the rate by 12.5 percentage points is a huge accomplishment, he said. Chou added that Japan has promised access and reforms that in the eyes of the U.S. administration "create a long-term pathway towards trade balance.' But Ryo Sahashi, a professor at the University of Tokyo's Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, called the deal "an extremely limited win." 'What we've achieved is merely a reasonably decent result compared to the worst-case scenario,' he said. 'Japan has simply escaped the worst possible situation, nothing more.' The U.S. president announced the deal after a 70-minute meeting at the White House with Akazawa, who arrived in Washington on Monday for an eighth round of negotiations with the Trump administration. Prior to the meeting at the White House, Akazawa met with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for more than two hours Monday evening and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for about 30 minutes Tuesday afternoon. 'It was a tense and high-stakes negotiation,' Akazawa said of his meeting with Trump. 'Both sides were fully serious and operating at the limit.' On X, Akazawa posted a photo in the White House with a hashtag that translates to #MissionComplete. People react as they read a newspaper special edition reporting on the U.S.-Japan tariff deal, in Tokyo on Wednesday. | REUTERS Ishiba — who has come under immense pressure to resign after the ruling coalition suffered a defeat in an Upper House election and lost its majority in the chamber — took credit Wednesday morning in Tokyo, saying the deal is a result of efforts made by his administration since February. 'This is precisely about prioritizing investment over tariffs,' Ishiba said. 'Since I proposed this idea to President Trump during the summit at the White House in February, I have consistently advocated for it and strongly pushed the U.S. side, and this agreement is the result of those efforts. 'I believe this will contribute to Japan and the United States working together to create jobs and promote high-quality manufacturing, thereby fulfilling various roles on the global stage moving forward,' he told reporters. News reports on Wednesday in Tokyo indicated Ishiba might resign by the end of August, though the prime minister denied this later in the day. 'Ironically, the Ishiba administration appears destined to be driven from office, with this tariff negotiation success potentially becoming its greatest — and final — achievement,' said Sahashi. But even if the leadership changes, Japan is likely to stick to the deal as part of Ishiba's legacy, said Hudson Institute's Chou. "I don't think a different leader would have necessarily been able to find a different path,' Chou said. The surprise breakthrough comes just ahead of an Aug. 1 deadline set by Trump in which the reciprocal rate for Japan was set to rise to 25%, up from the baseline 10%. Japan had previously eyed a meeting between Ishiba and Trump at the Group of Seven summit in June to reach a framework agreement, but auto tariffs had been a major sticking point. In the recent weeks leading up to Tuesday's agreement, Trump had expressed frustration with Japan and the pace of negotiations with the country, at one point threatening to take the reciprocal rate as high as 35%. 'I think both sides can claim that they got parts of what they wanted,' Chou said, while adding that the question now is whether Japan can carry out the pledges it has made. 'We'll have to see how that is carried out. I'm sure the Trump administration will also be paying very close attention."
