Subscribe to the White House Watch newsletter at no cost
Your essential resource for understanding the implications of the 2024 US election for Washington and beyond
Japan’s trade minister is traveling to Washington for a last-minute effort to negotiate tariff exemptions after President Donald Trump openly questioned an established security agreement with one of the US’s key allies.
Yoji Muto, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, is set to meet with his US counterpart Howard Lutnick on Monday, just two days prior to the anticipated 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports.
Those familiar with Lutnick’s views state that he supports using tariffs as leverage to persuade foreign governments to adopt more favorable policies towards the US.
This visit follows Trump’s remarks on Thursday, suggesting that while the US maintains a strong relationship with Japan, “we have an interesting deal with Japan that we have to protect them, but they don’t have to protect us.”
In reaction, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba addressed parliament on Friday, affirming that the security treaty is mutual. Japan hosts over a dozen US bases and approximately 60,000 US military personnel as part of a mutual defense agreement established by Republican President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960.
Ishiba is also managing a swift increase in military expenditure aimed at reaching 2% of GDP.
The trade minister is expected to discuss seeking exemptions from the metals tariffs and a delay on a potential 25% tax on automobile imports, which Trump had warned could be enacted as early as April.
Such automobile tariffs would adversely affect Japan’s major car manufacturers, which primarily export to the US and depend on a seamless flow of parts across the US, Mexico, and Canada. Last year, cars represented Japan’s largest export, with about a third destined for the US.
The fluctuating nature of Trump’s tariff threats has led to market instability, with Japan’s export-heavy Nikkei 225 index dropping more than 2% on Friday.
As he left Tokyo on Sunday, Muto informed reporters that during his initial meeting with Lutnick, he aimed to “build human relations” and propose ideas beneficial for both the US and Japanese economies, though he did not provide further details.
This visit was announced last week amid growing concern in Japan about whether its enduring alliance with the US would be sufficient to guard against a president who has pointed to trade deficits with other nations as evidence of imbalance.
According to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, Japan’s goods trade deficit with the US was the seventh largest by country last year, totaling $68.5 billion. However, Japan also stood as the largest source of foreign direct investment into the US, with $783.3 billion reported in 2023.
Tokyo is also troubled by allegations of currency manipulation. Last Monday, Trump identified Japan and China as nations that have been devaluing their currencies in an unfair manner against the US.
In defense, former Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda stated that Japan had made significant efforts last year to support the declining yen, and that the current monetary policy, focusing on increasing interest rates, does not aim to devalue the yen.
“If there’s any misunderstanding on that point, it needs to be addressed,” he commented on Friday during his first televised interview since resigning as governor in April 2023.
