Japanese PM Calls Trump’s Tariffs a National Crisis
By Takuya Nishimura, APP Senior Fellow, Former Editorial Writer for The Hokkaido Shimbun
The views expressed by the author are his own and are not associated with The Hokkaido Shimbun. You can find his blog, J Update here.April 7, 2025. Special to Asia Policy Point
U.S. President Donald Trump announced “reciprocal” tariffs on April 2, which will be imposed on goods from foreign countries with a specific rate for each country. Products from Japan other than automobiles will be subject to a 24 percent tariff, a rate well beyond the expectations of policymakers and business sectors in Japan. (There is a separate 25% tariff on Japanese auto imports.) Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba called it “national crisis” and asked for the opposition’s cooperation in responding to Trump’s announcement.
In his address in the White House Rose Garden, Trump argued that foreign countries had taken advantage of the U.S. in international trade “For decades, the United States slashed our trade barriers on other countries while those nations placed massive tariffs on our products and created outrageous non-monetary barriers to decimate our industries,” said Trump. He called April 2 “liberation day” to make America wealthy again.
The impact of the Trump tariffs on Japanese economy will be significant. Of Japan’s total exports, about 20 percent go to the U.S. Total exports to the U.S. amounted to 21.29 trillion yen ($146 billion) in 2024. Cars had the largest share (based on yen) of all exports from Japan to the U.S. – 28 percent. Trump had earlier announced a 25 percent tariff on automobile imports from most countries, including Japan. This tariff took effect on April 3. An economist calculates that Trump’s tariff policy, including auto tariffs, would reduce Japan’s gross domestic product by between 0.71 and 0.76 percent.
Ishiba immediately responded that Trump’s tariff policy was “extremely regrettable,” describing the situation for Japanese industries as a “national crisis.” He convened a meeting with six party leaders to discuss measures to mitigate Trump’s tariffs. “This is the issue with which we all together need to deal with,” said Ishiba. The opposition leaders did not refuse to join the government’s discussions. The head of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Yoshihiko Noda, recommended that Ishiba establish an inter-ministry team to address the problem.
Ishiba hopes to travel to the U.S. a second time this year and to meet with Trump as soon as possible. Ishiba made it clear that he would focus on fairness in trade at such a meeting. “It has been Japan that made the biggest investment to the U.S. and the biggest contribution to create new jobs. We did not exploit them or made unfair activities. I will have a logical and sincere negotiation without being emotional,” said Ishiba in the Upper House on April 7. Notably, over the weekend Trump ordered the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to review again Nippon Steel’s proposed takeover of U.S. Steel.
Later in the day, Ishiba was able to speak with Trump by phone for 25 minutes. The two did not reach any agreement other than to appoint high-level teams to negotiate the tariffs next week. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will lead the U.S. team. Japan’s negotiator will be Ryosei Akazawa, Economic Revitalization Minister. Bessent says Japan will get priority in negotiations. Unsaid, is that Japan has some leverage as the U.S.’s biggest creditor and investor, as reminded by PM Ishiba.
In his tariff announcement on April 2 in the Rose Garden, Trump referred strangely to former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “I went to him, and I said, Shinzo, we have to do something, trade is not fair. He said, I know that, I know that. And he was a great gentleman. He was a fantastic man, but he understood immediately what I was talking about, --- and we worked out a deal and it would have been a much better deal,” said Trump. Trump might have been implying that Japan would understand his tariff policy if its leader was still (the now deceased) Abe.
“A much better deal” that Trump referred to was interpreted in Japan as the 2019 trade agreement with the U.S. That agreement reconfirmed that the two countries would not impose additional automobile tariffs. Has Trump now walked away from that agreement? “I can’t help questioning Trump’s tariffs in light of the joint statement on the Japan-U.S. Trade Agreement,” Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato said.
“National crisis” is a phrase that Abe liked to use. He explained in 2017 that his decision to hold a snap election of the House of Representatives was to overcome a “national crisis” with the convergence of an aging society with a low birth rate and the situation in North Korea. The crisis in fact seemed a personal one: at the time, he was in jeopardy with a scandal of relationships with Moritomo and Kake Gakuen. The snap election did not otherwise address the broader concerns.
In 2020, Abe called COVID-19 a national crisis once in a hundred years to explain the highly unusual allocation of reserves in the national budget for COVID measures. Abe repeatedly used “national crisis” as an excuse for an unreasonable policy.
Ishiba used Abe’s wording in the same way. By calling Trump’s tariffs a “national crisis,” Ishiba is seeking a temporary political ceasefire with the opposition parties. This is politically unusual. Trump’s reference in the Rose Garden to Abe might have reminded Ishiba of Abe’s technique to survive a political crisis.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced “reciprocal” tariffs on April 2, which will be imposed on goods from foreign countries with a specific rate for each country. Products from Japan other than automobiles will be subject to a 24 percent tariff, a rate well beyond the expectations of policymakers and business sectors in Japan. (There is a separate 25% tariff on Japanese auto imports.) Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba called it “national crisis” and asked for the opposition’s cooperation in responding to Trump’s announcement.
In his address in the White House Rose Garden, Trump argued that foreign countries had taken advantage of the U.S. in international trade “For decades, the United States slashed our trade barriers on other countries while those nations placed massive tariffs on our products and created outrageous non-monetary barriers to decimate our industries,” said Trump. He called April 2 “liberation day” to make America wealthy again.
The impact of the Trump tariffs on Japanese economy will be significant. Of Japan’s total exports, about 20 percent go to the U.S. Total exports to the U.S. amounted to 21.29 trillion yen ($146 billion) in 2024. Cars had the largest share (based on yen) of all exports from Japan to the U.S. – 28 percent. Trump had earlier announced a 25 percent tariff on automobile imports from most countries, including Japan. This tariff took effect on April 3. An economist calculates that Trump’s tariff policy, including auto tariffs, would reduce Japan’s gross domestic product by between 0.71 and 0.76 percent.
Ishiba immediately responded that Trump’s tariff policy was “extremely regrettable,” describing the situation for Japanese industries as a “national crisis.” He convened a meeting with six party leaders to discuss measures to mitigate Trump’s tariffs. “This is the issue with which we all together need to deal with,” said Ishiba. The opposition leaders did not refuse to join the government’s discussions. The head of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, Yoshihiko Noda, recommended that Ishiba establish an inter-ministry team to address the problem.
Ishiba hopes to travel to the U.S. a second time this year and to meet with Trump as soon as possible. Ishiba made it clear that he would focus on fairness in trade at such a meeting. “It has been Japan that made the biggest investment to the U.S. and the biggest contribution to create new jobs. We did not exploit them or made unfair activities. I will have a logical and sincere negotiation without being emotional,” said Ishiba in the Upper House on April 7. Notably, over the weekend Trump ordered the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to review again Nippon Steel’s proposed takeover of U.S. Steel.
Later in the day, Ishiba was able to speak with Trump by phone for 25 minutes. The two did not reach any agreement other than to appoint high-level teams to negotiate the tariffs next week. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will lead the U.S. team. Japan’s negotiator will be Ryosei Akazawa, Economic Revitalization Minister. Bessent says Japan will get priority in negotiations. Unsaid, is that Japan has some leverage as the U.S.’s biggest creditor and investor, as reminded by PM Ishiba.
In his tariff announcement on April 2 in the Rose Garden, Trump referred strangely to former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “I went to him, and I said, Shinzo, we have to do something, trade is not fair. He said, I know that, I know that. And he was a great gentleman. He was a fantastic man, but he understood immediately what I was talking about, --- and we worked out a deal and it would have been a much better deal,” said Trump. Trump might have been implying that Japan would understand his tariff policy if its leader was still (the now deceased) Abe.
“A much better deal” that Trump referred to was interpreted in Japan as the 2019 trade agreement with the U.S. That agreement reconfirmed that the two countries would not impose additional automobile tariffs. Has Trump now walked away from that agreement? “I can’t help questioning Trump’s tariffs in light of the joint statement on the Japan-U.S. Trade Agreement,” Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato said.
“National crisis” is a phrase that Abe liked to use. He explained in 2017 that his decision to hold a snap election of the House of Representatives was to overcome a “national crisis” with the convergence of an aging society with a low birth rate and the situation in North Korea. The crisis in fact seemed a personal one: at the time, he was in jeopardy with a scandal of relationships with Moritomo and Kake Gakuen. The snap election did not otherwise address the broader concerns.
In 2020, Abe called COVID-19 a national crisis once in a hundred years to explain the highly unusual allocation of reserves in the national budget for COVID measures. Abe repeatedly used “national crisis” as an excuse for an unreasonable policy.
Ishiba used Abe’s wording in the same way. By calling Trump’s tariffs a “national crisis,” Ishiba is seeking a temporary political ceasefire with the opposition parties. This is politically unusual. Trump’s reference in the Rose Garden to Abe might have reminded Ishiba of Abe’s technique to survive a political crisis.
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