On July 22, on the Truth Social, US President Donald Trump said that he had just reached the “largest agreement in history” with Japan. Accordingly, the new reciprocal tax applied to this country is only 15%.

Japan will also invest 550 billion USD in the United States. Mr. Trump confirmed that Washington would receive “90% profit” from these investments.

The US President declared that Japan “will completely open the market for cars, trucks, rice, some American agricultural products and many other items”. The agreement will therefore create “hundreds of thousands of jobs”.

Japan belongs to the first group of countries to start negotiations with the United States, but until now it has reached an agreement. The US President repeatedly complained that the country was “tough” when negotiating and did not agree to buy American rice.

In addition to Japan, President Trump said it also reached a trade agreement with the Philippines, with a 19%tax rate. This is also Mr. Trump pressure on Indonesia.

Notice of an agreement with the Philippines briefly. To be reduced to 19%, from 20%published in the newspaper letter on July 9, the Philippines will “open the market for US goods, bringing import tax to 0%”. Mr. Trump revealed that the two sides will also strengthen military cooperation, and commented that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos is a “very good and tough” negotiator.

In the newspaper at the beginning of the month, Mr. Trump imposed a 25% tax on all imported goods from Japan. This level is 24%higher than the announcement of April 2. Earlier, like other countries, cars in the US were taxed 25%. Car is one of the pillars of the Japanese economy, contributing 28.3% of the country’s export turnover to the US in 2024, according to customs data.

Last weekend, US Finance Secretary Scott Bessent wrote on social network X that the trade agreement with Japan was “still feasible”. Earlier, Mr. Trump this week raised concerns about this prospect, when he announced his partner “did not open the market”. At the beginning of the month, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba also affirmed that “it would not be easy to give in”.

The US is currently the largest export market in Japan. The announced data on July 17 shows that Japan’s exports to the US have dropped in the second month in a row, due to the impact of import tax.

Accordingly, export turnover to the US decreased by 11.4% in June compared to the same period last year. This is the biggest reduction since the beginning of 2021. Car turnover decreased by nearly 27%. Automotive components decreased by 15.5% and pharmaceuticals decreased by 41%.