By Seima Oki

8:00 JST, April 19, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs have caused chaos around the world. Japan, an ally of the United States, is among the countries to be greatly shocked by them.

The tariff rate on Japan is 24%. “We never thought such a high tariff rate would be imposed,” said a senior Japanese government official. On April 9, Trump announced a 90-day suspension of this “reciprocal” tariff, while leaving a 10% “baseline” tariff in place. A 25% tariff on automobiles also remains. Automobiles are Japan’s top export to the United States, so the impact of the tariff measures remains enormous for this country.

When Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba met with Trump on a visit to the United States in February, the meeting was evaluated in Japan as a success to a certain extent because the U.S. side did not ask for an increase in defense spending. Since stabilizing the relationship with the unpredictable Trump is directly linked to Japan’s national interests, optimism began to spread about Japan-U.S. relations under the Trump administration.

However, the imposition of the new tariffs is something that Ishiba himself has called a “national crisis,” and the optimism has disappeared all at once. Even if Ishiba had built a personal relationship with Trump, he could not have prevented the imposition of the tariffs. In an April 2 speech,........

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