Japan auto body urges swift removal of Trump's additional tariffs
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The head of Japan's auto industry body urged Thursday the swift removal of U.S. President Donald Trump's additional 25 percent tariffs on cars and their parts, as Tokyo plans another round of ministerial-level tariffs talks with Washington later this week.
"We hope for tenacious talks to achieve an early agreement," Masanori Katayama, chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, told a press conference.
He added that the association looks forward to "productive dialogue" to continue between Japan and the United States and hopes such discussions will foster the business environment of both countries' automotive industries.
Japan's top tariffs negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, is set to travel to the United States from Friday for the third round of tariffs talks with U.S. ministers, where negotiations in the auto and farm sectors are set to be in focus.
Major Japanese automakers including Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. have projected a fall in net profits, while others skipped releasing their earnings estimates for the current year through March due to uncertainties over Trump's tariff measures.
"It is impossible" for tariffs on autos not be negotiated in the talks with the United States, Katayama, chairman and CEO of Isuzu Motors Ltd., told reporters.
Katayama stressed that Japanese automakers have contributed significantly to the U.S. economy, unveiling latest data that they have invested some $66.4 billion in the country since 1982, when local production there was launched, through the end of 2024.
Data also showed that the automakers locally produced 100 million units.
In 2024, 3.28 million units were produced, generating 110,000 jobs.
Trump's auto tariffs have weighed on Japan's mainstay auto sector. According to official Japanese trade data, about 1.37 million vehicles were shipped to the United States in 2024, accounting for 28.3 percent of its total exports to the world's largest economy in terms of value.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Today
an hour ago
- Japan Today
Japan whaling ship returns after taking 25 fin whales in Sea of Okhotsk
A commercial whaling ship docks at Sendai port in Miyagi Prefecture on Monday, after conducting a hunt in the Sea of Okhotsk. A commercial whaling ship returned to a port in northeastern Japan on Monday carrying 25 fin whales taken in the Sea of Okhotsk. The fin whale hunt in Japan's exclusive economic zone, north of the northern island of Hokkaido, was conducted for the first time since Japan formally withdrew from the International Whaling Commission in 2019. About 320 tons of fin whale meat were unloaded at Sendai port in Miyagi Prefecture on Monday, with some 1.6 tons set to be transported to six markets across the country including Tokyo and Osaka as raw meat. The ship departed Shimonoseki port in the western Japanese prefecture of Yamaguchi on April 21. The Japanese Fisheries Agency added fin whales to the list of commercial whaling target species in 2024, setting a catch quota of 60 for this year. As an International Whaling Commission member, Japan halted commercial whaling in 1988 but continued to hunt whales for what it called research purposes. The practice was criticized internationally as a cover for commercial whaling. © KYODO
Japan Today
an hour ago
- Japan Today
Japan whaling ship returns after taking 25 fin whales in Okhotsk
A commercial whaling ship docks at Sendai port in Miyagi Prefecture on Monday, after conducting a hunt in the Sea of Okhotsk. A commercial whaling ship returned to a port in northeastern Japan on Monday carrying 25 fin whales taken in the Sea of Okhotsk. The fin whale hunt in Japan's exclusive economic zone, north of the northern island of Hokkaido, was conducted for the first time since Japan formally withdrew from the International Whaling Commission in 2019. About 320 tons of fin whale meat were unloaded at Sendai port in Miyagi Prefecture on Monday, with some 1.6 tons set to be transported to six markets across the country including Tokyo and Osaka as raw meat. The ship departed Shimonoseki port in the western Japanese prefecture of Yamaguchi on April 21. The Japanese Fisheries Agency added fin whales to the list of commercial whaling target species in 2024, setting a catch quota of 60 for this year. As an International Whaling Commission member, Japan halted commercial whaling in 1988 but continued to hunt whales for what it called research purposes. The practice was criticized internationally as a cover for commercial whaling. © KYODO
an hour ago
2-Yr-Sentence Sought for Ex-Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Worker
News from Japan Society Jun 2, 2025 16:32 (JST) Tokyo, June 2 (Jiji Press)--Prosecutors sought a two-year prison term for a former Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank employee in an insider trading trial on Monday. In their closing argument at Tokyo District Court, prosecutors pointed out that when he was in the bank the defendant, Hajime Katayama, 55, took the advantage of his position as a securities transfer agency business director to repeat stock transactions based on information about clients and gained some 29.3 million yen in profit. Then they demanded that Katayama be imprisoned for two years, fined 2 million yen and ordered to forfeit additional 61.4 million yen, calling him a habitual, malicious offender with a strong criminal intent. "There is no room for clemency," they stressed. Meanwhile, the defense in its final plea called for a cut in the penalty money and a suspended sentence, insisting that Katayama's case be treated as a voluntary surrender because he reported the illegal transactions to the Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office before they came to light. The defendant, who has already admitted to violating the financial instruments and exchange law, said, "I'm sorry for causing a big trouble." [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] Jiji Press
