Japan’s Industry Minister Ryosei Akazawa acknowledged differences with the United States over the allocation of the $550 billion that Tokyo has committed to investing as part of a trade deal.
Tokyo declared this Friday, the 14th, that it will accelerate negotiations.
“There are still significant divergences,” admitted Akazawa, at a press conference in Washington, according to the economic newspaper Nikkei, after meeting with US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick.
The Japanese Ministry of Industry indicated on the social network X that Akazawa and Lutnick held “in-depth discussions” about the first round of investment under the trade agreement and agreed to “further accelerate coordination.”
Despite the differences, the ministry indicated that the objective is to reach an agreement before Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s trip to the United States, scheduled for March 19, to meet with American President Donald Trump.
The trade agreement, reached in July by the two powers after months of negotiations, commits the Asian country to investments of 550 billion dollars (463 billion euros) in the United States.
In return, Japanese products exported to the North American market face tariffs of 15%, instead of the 25% that Trump had threatened to impose.
However, it is not yet clear what form these investments will take.
“We just concluded a huge trade deal with Japan,” Donald Trump wrote at the time on his platform, Truth Social, stating that “there has never been anything like it.”
“A gigantic agreement, perhaps the biggest ever reached”, he highlighted.
The Republican guaranteed that the United States would keep 90% of the profits from Japanese investments in the country.
“This agreement will bring thousands of jobs (…) and Japan will open its country to trade, including cars, trucks, rice and other agricultural products”, said Trump.
Japan was the United States’ fifth largest trading partner in 2024, representing 4.3% of all trade and more than 148 billion dollars (126 billion euros) in imports from the Asian country, according to government data.
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