Donald Trump is apparently ready to negotiate with Japan about the announced punitive tariffs. After a telephone conversation between the Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Trump late Monday evening of Japanese times, the American finance minister Scott Bessent announced that he should take out trade negotiations with the country. The minister announced his own appointment in a contribution on the platform X and wrote that Trump had asked him and the US trade officer to “open negotiations in order to implement the vision of the president for the new golden age of global trade” with Japan. explained the negotiations. Trump had repeatedly accused Japan in the past few months to keep his currency artificially low towards the American and thus promote his own export industry. The government in Tokyo announced on Tuesday that Minister of Economics Ryosei should negotiate Akazawa for their side. Ishiba and Trump had been on the phone for about half an hour on Monday evening from nine o’clock. In it, both had agreed to record talks at the ministerial level, as Ishiba said after the phone call to reporters in Tokyo. During the phone call, he expressed his “big concern” that Trump’s customs announced on Wednesday would limit the ability to invest the ability of Japanese companies in the United States. He had asked Trump to rethink this customs. The largest foreign investors in the United States have been the largest foreign investors in the USA Japan’s corporations for five years. Among other things, Toyota has built new production lines for electric vehicles and batteries, Panasonic also a new battery plant. The Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son had promised Trump shortly after his election victory to invest up to $ 100 billion in the United States during his term. On Tuesday, he wrote on his own Truth Social platform about Japan: “You treated the USA very badly in stores. You don’t take our cars, but we take millions of your cars.” He wrote about the conversation with Ishiba: “Countries from all over the world speak with us. Hard but fair framework conditions are set. I spoke to the Japanese Prime Minister this morning. He sends a top team to negotiate!” Ishiba said in Tokyo that the two countries have proposed that the “comprehensive approach for the cooperation, among other things, benefits from the expansion of investments, instead of investing one -sided tariffs. During a visit to Washington in February, shortly after Trump’s inauguration, Ishiba also promised the President a comprehensive cooperation between the two countries in a funding project of liquefied gas in the US state of Alaska and the acceptance of large amounts of the energy source. Ishiba confirmed that he wanted to travel to Washington again at the time of the most suitable time. For many of the most important corporations in the country such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan, the United States represent the largest sales market. In total, Japan exported the value of 21 trillion yen (136.5 billion euros) last year. China follows as the second most important trading partner with goods worth 19 trillion yen (123 billion euros). The share prices on the Tokyo stock exchange were abandoned as a result of the unexpectedly high -announced tariffs. In addition to the car values, technology values such as Sony and Nintendo also lost in importance. The stock exchange index for Japanese bank stocks lost almost a third of value within three trading days. Ishiba spoke of a “national crisis” in parliament. On Tuesday after the renegotiations became known, the Japanese leading index Nikkei 225 increased by up to 6 percent. In addition to economic importance, Japan is also very dependent on the United States militarily. With around 50,000 soldiers on several major bases in the country, the Americans serve as a protective power of the freedom and democratically organized economy towards the common system enemies China, Russia and North Korea in the neighborhood. Japan’s own military skills are limited – also because the Americans have prevented comprehensive upgrade since World War II.
