Japan stands up to Trump
My prediction is that the “negotiations” will be over what kind of fig leaf Japan will allow in return for abject Trump Administration capitulation:
“Japan on Tuesday clarified its stance on U.S. tariffs, saying it wants all new levies put into place by the administration of President Donald Trump completely removed, confirming a hard-line position ahead of high-level negotiations that might be held later this week in Washington.
“As we have repeatedly stated, we find the series of U.S. tariff measures — including those on automobiles, auto parts, steel, aluminum, and reciprocal tariffs — extremely regrettable,” said Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, at a news conference.
“The stance Japan would be taking in the next round of negotiations has been unclear, with officials repeatedly calling for the U.S. to “review” the measures. The term was open to interpretation and possibly suggested Japan was signaling it was open to compromise.
“On Tuesday, Akazawa settled the issue once and for all as the two countries prepare for a third round of high-level tariff talks.”
Maybe a 25% tariff on the import of Japanese hentai?
Japan wants all Trump tariffs removed
“Japan on Tuesday clarified its stance on U.S. tariffs, saying it wants all new levies put into place by the administration of President Donald Trump completely removed, confirming a hard-line position ahead of high-level negotiations that might be held later this week in Washington.
“As we have repeatedly stated, we find the series of U.S. tariff measures — including those on automobiles, auto parts, steel, aluminum, and reciprocal tariffs — extremely regrettable,” said Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, at a news conference.
“The stance Japan would be taking in the next round of negotiations has been unclear, with officials repeatedly calling for the U.S. to “review” the measures. The term was open to interpretation and possibly suggested Japan was signaling it was open to compromise.
“On Tuesday, Akazawa settled the issue once and for all as the two countries prepare for a third round of high-level tariff talks.”
Maybe a 25% tariff on the import of Japanese hentai?
Japan wants all Trump tariffs removed
Joel:
This is going to be interesting. The Japanese are confident and demanding. Plus, they do not need the US. The Japanese have led in the field of manufacturing with the US getting closer in the last decade. Japan is still largely touted as the JIT and TQC experts years before the US.
Richard Schonberger’s “Japanese Manufacturing Techniques” gives a good analysis of how Japanese technology led the way for manufacturing to which the US has yet to catch up and will not because of leadership like Trump’s.
That and Yasuhiro Monden’s “Toyota Production System.”
It will indeed be interesting, particularly since Japan is going to need all the exports it can get to keep its economy going in the midst of a bond market rout. “Japan’s 30-Year and 40-Year Bonds Crater, Yields Spike, Huge Mess Coming Home to Roost. Yen Carry Trade at Risk.”
https://wolfstreet.com/2025/05/20/japans-30-year-and-40-year-bonds-crater-yields-spike-huge-mess-coming-home-to-roost-yen-carry-trade-at-risk/
@John,
And so your prophecy on the outcome of the upcoming negotiations is . . . what?
Japan’s GDP Shrinks Annualized 0.7％ in Jan.-March; U.S. Tariff Impact Feared to Extend Drop in April-June – The Japan News
Being a staunch US ally, I expect Japan to just suck up whatever is ultimately foisted upon it and tolerate the pain consistent with the old adage: “Japan–rich nation, poor people.”
The spanner for Trump is that the US’ biggest customer for its debt will have less money to spend…
“The spanner for Trump is that the US’ biggest customer for its debt will have less money to spend…”
At a time when US debt is being downgraded, and Congress is set to explode deficit spending.
I expect that within the next 60 days, Trump will celebrate a “Huge Deal” with Japan, the “Best Deal, great for both Japan, but Better for U.S.” with lots a “Huge numbers” of promised investment by Japan in U.S., and much like the U.K. “Deal” will be more like the “concept of deal,” with all tariffs on Japan except for the 10% universal tariff lifted and Japanese agreeing to buy more U.S. beef, but really little or nothing changed (and the investments by Japanese firms being already long planned, etc.) Trump is in many ways stupid, but he does have one particular set of skills as his own publicist and along with a masterful understanding and exploitation of American mass media’s voracious hunger for attention grabbing “copy.” The “tariff wars” may drag the economy down for decades, but it allows Trump to hog the headlines every week with “Deals,” the result being low attention voters think he is doing a “wonderful job.”
Three old movies, “Ace in the Hole” with Kirk Douglas, “A Face in the Crowd” with Andy Griffith and Patricia Neal, and “The Sweet Smell of Success” with Burt Lancaster & Tony Curtis can teach us a lot about why Trump has become our Caesar.
Trump’s cryptocurrency endeavor caps a political career filled with conflicts of interest
Trump’s cryptocurrency endeavor caps a political career filled with conflicts of interest
Nick Robins-Early
Trump’s foray into cryptocurrency involves him leveraging his presidency for personal gain and operating in an industry he has power over
The 220 winners of a cryptocurrency contest were told on Monday to look out for an email featuring “the most exclusive invitation in the world”. As a reward for spending immense amounts of money, in some cases millions of dollars, they had won the prize of attending a private gala with Donald Trump at his own Washington DC golf club later this month.
Awarding access to the president in exchange for investment in his crypto endeavor was Trump’s latest conflict of interest in a political career filled with, in the words of one of his most repeated catchphrases, “many such cases”. Real estate holdings, a media company, merchandising deals, fraud and most recently Qatar’s gift of a $400m plane are only some of the myriad of entanglements that government ethics watchdogs have warned about for a decade now.
Trump’s foray into cryptocurrency is a unique combination and escalation of these conflicts. It involves him leveraging his presidency for personal gain, potentially opening himself up to foreign influence and operating in an industry he has immense power to deregulate. It marries Trump’s unscrupulous business tendencies with an industry that is notorious for fraud, scams and a lack of transparency. It may also become the most lucrative business he’s ever been involved in.
Auctioning off influence
Trump’s shift from cryptocurrency skeptic to industry operator last year was already a concern for ethics and transparency advocates, who worried that, if elected, he could potentially push through crypto-friendly legislation that would benefit his personal financial interests. The auctioning off of direct access to the president through a crypto scheme intensified fears around political corruption and attempts to buy influence, especially given the opaque nature of the contest. The names of the winners are still unknown…….