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Japan’s chief trade negotiator will leave Washington without an immediate agreement after meeting Donald Trump as part of efforts to negotiate the removal of stiff US tariffs.
The US president met Ryosei Akazawa on Wednesday and said on social media there had been “Big Progress!” as Japan sought to become the first major economy to secure a reprieve from Trump’s tariffs, which sparked turmoil in the global economy after they were unveiled this month.
Japanese officials said the unanticipated personal meeting with Trump was a possible sign of the president’s keenness to hammer out trade deals with allies, as China also tries to deepen its engagement in global trade.
Akazawa told reporters after the talks that the two sides agreed to hold a second meeting this month and seek a quick resolution. He described the tariffs as “extremely regrettable” and urged the White House to pursue a deal that would strengthen both economies.
He said he was “very grateful” that the US president met his delegation, which also held talks with US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent and trade representative Jamieson Greer.
Bessent wrote on X on Thursday that the “discussions on trade are progressing in a highly satisfactory direction”, and looked forward to more talks with “our friends from Japan soon”.
The US-Japan talks are being closely scrutinised by governments around the world for clues on Trump’s strategy in escalating a global trade war.
Japan, America’s biggest outside investor and closest ally in Asia, has a great deal at risk in economic and security terms if relations with Washington sour.
The US has already imposed a 25 per cent tariff on Japanese cars, steel and aluminium and has refused a succession of requests for exemptions from Tokyo.
The prospect of an additional 24 per cent levy under Trump’s “reciprocal” tariff regime has shaken corporate Japan and led Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to declare a “national crisis”.
Japan recorded a ¥9tn ($63bn) trade surplus with the US for the fiscal year to the end of March, its finance ministry announced on Thursday, down 1.3 per cent from the previous year.
Speaking to reporters in Tokyo on Thursday morning, Ishiba highlighted Japan’s potential advantage from its trade negotiations being a top priority for Trump.
“Of course, the negotiations will not be easy going forward,” he warned.
Ahead of joining the talks, Trump signalled he would raise the question of whether Japan should bear a greater financial burden for hosting US military forces at bases around the country.
The US president has repeatedly described the allies’ security treaty as “unfair”, last week repeating the assertion that “we pay hundreds of billions of dollars to defend them . . . they don’t pay anything”.
Japan pays about $1.4bn a year towards the cost of supporting the US military presence.
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The prospect that the next round of talks would involve Japan pledging higher defence spending boosted shares in Japanese defence contractors, with IHI rising 5 per cent, Kawasaki Heavy Industries gaining 6.3 per cent and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries up 1.6 per cent on Thursday.
According to Akazawa, the talks did not cover foreign exchange issues and the weak yen, a preoccupation for the US administration.
Talks on that issue would be conducted separately between Bessent and Japan’s finance minister Katsunobu Kato, he said.
Akazawa later reiterated Japan’s position that it was not manipulating markets to weaken the yen.
