Tracking Japan On the International Arena

Following a convincing victory in the February 8 general election, the Takaichi government has significantly strengthened its position domestically. This consolidation is also reflected on the international stage, where Japan is increasingly confident in its relations with both allies and opponents.

Relations with the United States: tariffs remain

This exchange of pleasantries is meaningful ahead of her visit to the US, scheduled for the second half of March. The visit will involve discussions on the state of and prospects for developing allied relations, which have a number of issues, especially in the trade and economic sphere. Negotiations on the tariff problem have been ongoing for nearly a year and, seemingly, neared completion immediately following the elections in Japan. This was evidenced, for instance, by reports of an agreement on investment projects totaling $36.5 billion, which will be implemented by three leading Japanese companies in the United States. Overall, in the negotiation process, the Japanese leadership has committed to attracting over $500 billion in private investment into the US economy.

The first such project was successfully concluded a year earlier, namely the protracted process of Nippon Steel’s $15 billion acquisition of US Steel. Now, following the explosion at the US Steel plant in Pennsylvania last August, the question of what to do next plagues Nippon Steel headquarters in Tokyo. Nevertheless, even incidents like this are largely business as usual.

The US........

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