April 18, 2025

The first Japan-U.S. negotiations on “Trump tariffs” took place at the U.S. White House on April 16. Seeking a reconsideration of U.S. tariff measures, Japan’s Economic Revitalization Minister Akazawa met with President Trump, Treasury Secretary Bessent, and USTR Greer. Both sides agreed to hold further talks to work to reach a comprehensive tariff deal as early as possible.

On the following day, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira held a press conference in the Diet building and said, “What’s important for Japan is not to reach an early agreement, but to unite with the international community, especially with Asian countries, to have the unreasonable U.S. tariff measures withdrawn.”

Koike referred to the press conference held following the bilateral talks, in which Minister Akazawa said, “Exchange rates were not discussed,” in response to a question whether foreign exchange and security issues were on the agenda. “If that is the case,” Koike said, “They may have discussed the security issue as President Trump himself had posted that the cost of military support would be on the agenda.” He also said that he sees the U.S. negotiators may have requested Japan to purchase more U.S.-made weapons, increase the so-called “sympathy budget” to maintain U.S. troops at U.S. military bases in Japan, and increase Japan’s military spending to 3% of GDP.

Koike noted that, Trump posted on social media after meeting with Akazawa that the U.S. administration had made “Big Progress!” with Japan. The chief of the JCP Secretariat said, “If Japan made concessions, it would be extremely serious,” because Trump’s unilateral imposition of tariffs violates both the Japan-U.S. trade agreement and WTO rules.

He stated, “The world is paying attention to Japan to see what kind of negotiations it will conduct with the U.S.,” calling on the Japanese government to coordinate with the international community to get U.S. President Trump to give up on his unjust demands.

Past related articles:
> Yamazoe criticizes Trump’s remark that Japan does not bear costs for stationing of US military [April 12, 2025]
> Yamazoe questions the amount of trade deficit that US uses as basis for calculating tariff rate on Japan [April 11, 2025]