TOKYO: US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Japanese goods are a “national crisis”, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Friday (Apr 4) ahead of cross-party talks on mitigating the impact on the heavily export-dependent economy.
Japanese firms are the biggest investors into the United States but Trump on Thursday announced a hefty 24 per cent levy on imports from the close US ally as part of global “reciprocal” levies.
The measures “can be called a national crisis and the government is doing its best with all parties” to lessen the impact, Ishiba said in parliament.
He called, however, for a “calm-headed” approach to negotiations with Trump, who has also imposed 25 per cent tariffs on auto imports, which came into force this week.
Local media reported on Friday that Japanese officials were attempting to organise a call between Ishiba and Trump, who held apparently friendly talks at the White House in February.
Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya “strongly demanded” to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in talks in Brussels on Thursday that the “extremely regrettable” measures be reviewed, Tokyo said.
Japan’s main Nikkei 225 index fell 2.75 per cent on Friday, adding to a 2.7 per cent drop on Thursday after the S&P 500 on Wall Street dropped by the most in a day since 2020.
Ishiba told ministers “to take all measures necessary including financing support” for domestic industries and protecting jobs, government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.
Ishiba’s meetings with party leaders later on Friday were aimed at laying the groundwork for the supplementary budget, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported.
