Ishiba Dispatches Akazawa to D.C.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on April 11th ordered the top negotiator over tariffs with the United States, Ryosei Akazawa, to start negotiation with Donald Trump administration. Akazawa is going to visit Washington D.C. on April 16th and have a meeting with his counterparts. While Ishiba established new inter-ministerial team dealing with Trump’s tariffs, it is still unclear what kind of strategy they will build up for the negotiation.

“I hope you to promote deliberate negotiation to achieve broad cooperation for the interest of both countries in this situation paralleled with a national crisis,” Ishiba told Akazawa in a meeting at Prime Minister’s Official Residence. Akazawa has been a closest ally of Ishiba for these twenty years, and was appointed one of the ministers of Ishiba Cabinet with firm personal confidence. “What I can’t quit is smoking and (relationship with) Akazawa,” Ishiba once said.

 

It is scheduled for Akazawa to leave Japan on April 16th and visit Washington D.C. for three days. He will hopefully have a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Treasury, Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Bessent has saidthat Japan will be given priority in negotiations with foreign countries, because Japan “came forward very quickly.”

 

It is expected that Akazawa will talk with Bessent and Greer about various issues including non-tariff barrier of Japan, foreign exchange or agricultural products. Bessent has said that Japan’s non-tariff barriers are quite high. It is difficult, however, for Japanese government to loosen safety regulation for U.S. automobiles to be more affordable in Japan.

 

“He seems to mention non-tariff barriers and currency policy as among topics he’d like to discuss,” said Akazawa. Trump has expressed his frustration with Japan’s currency policy, saying “you can’t continue to reduce and break down your currency.” While negotiation over currency is supposed to be led by Minister of Finance, Katsunobu Kato, it is possible that Akazawa will talk about this issue with American counterparts.

 

“We feel like we could have more and better agricultural market access,” said Greer in prior to negotiation with Japan. Among the agricultural products from the U.S. to Japan, rice is currently focused on. As the staple food for the Japanese, rice is strictly controlled by the government in its trade inside Japan. The U.S. argues that Japan’s rice trade is not transparent and hard for foreign country to access. Although Japanese government is reluctant to open its rice market, current price hike of rice in Japan may increase demand of foreign rice.

 

Ishiba administration launched a taskforce on tariffs, co-headed by Akazawa and Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi. Their staffs consist of officers from Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Finance, or Economy, Trade and Industry. They are discussing how to deal with pressure from Trump administration to implement its America First foreign policy.

 

Trump reiterates his frustration on imbalance of responsibility on defending Japan. “We pay hundreds of billions of dollars to defend them, but…they don’t pay anything,” said Trump. It is possible that Trump administration will introduce security issue into the negotiation over tariff. But Japan is still looking for bargaining chips to counter U.S.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amendment of Local Autonomy Law

The House of Representatives started discussion on revision of the Local Autonomy Law, which would vest the national government a power to instruct local government in an emergency. It may change the relationship between the national and local government, which has been recognized as equal. The opposition parties oppose the amendment, arguing that it would give the national government an excessive power.   With the Meiji Restoration, the national government abolished the feudal system, introducing modern governance. However, its autonomy was not sufficient. The governor of each prefecture was appointed by the national government. The local governments subordinated to the national government. It was as late as 2000 when  the Comprehensive Decentralization Law  was enacted and the relationship between the national and local government was defined as equal.   The national government found inconvenience in the relationship between the national and local government, when ...
Read more

Request for Final Nuclear Disposal Site

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry requested Genkai Town, Saga, to accept “literature survey” for building a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste. Genkai is going to answer within this month. If it accepts, it will be the third place to accept that survey, following two places in Hokkaido. Main reason to accept the survey is supposed to be subsidy from the national government.   Japan has no final disposal site. Among all 54 reactors in 17 nuclear power generation plant, 12 reactors of 6 plants are operating. The rest of them are not in operation, some of which are determined to be decommissioned. Used nuclear fuels are stocked in each plant, 　 or have sent to a reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori. There are two plans to stock nuclear wastes in the intermediate facility for disposal, one is already built and another is still in negotiation.   Nuclear Fuel Final Disposal Act in 2000 determines to bury nuclear waste in the underground. Literature survey, ...
Read more

Not A Royal Wedding

The bride called her husband an indispensable existence and their marriage was necessary choice to protect their mind. The groom insisted on his life as only once and his right to be with his loved one. Her father wanted his daughter’s marriage to be celebrated by the people. The people were not sure whether the family was happy as a whole. Is this the traditional Japanese social system that makes no one happy? Mako Komuro, as known as Princess Mako during her life in one of the royal family Akishino, held on Tuesday a press conference with her husband Kei Komuro, right after submitting marriage report to local government. It was something different from ordinary Q&A session, because Mako was afraid of her mental uneasiness brought by some questions not based on truth. So, the event was actually one-sided speech to the reporters. Mako emphasized that the Kei’s decision of studying abroad five years ago had not been his original idea, but a result of her request to establish an over...
Read more