Japan considering soybean, rice concessions in US tariff talks, Yomiuri reports

TOKYO: Japan is considering increasing its soybean and rice imports as a concession in trade negotiations with the US over President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, Japan’s Yomiuri daily reported on Saturday.

With Trump’s trade offensive roiling markets and stoking recession fears, Japan is seeking to walk back his “reciprocal” tariffs and other duties imposed on Japan, along with dozens of countries.

In their first round of bilateral talks on Wednesday, US negotiators brought up automobiles and rice as areas where they said Tokyo puts up market barriers, and they demanded that Japan import more meat, fish products and potatoes, the newspaper said, without citing the sources for its information.

Japan’s Cabinet Office could not immediately be reached for comment.

Those trade barriers are cited in an annual report by the Office of the US Trade Representative. Japanese media highlighted a White House photo of the 400-page report on the table at the talks in Washington.

Trump unexpectedly brought Japan's lead negotiator, Economic Revitalisation Minister Ryosei Akazawa, into the Oval Office and touted “big progress” after the talks, although few specifics have been disclosed. Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato is expected to resume the bilateral talks with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the sidelines of global meetings next week in Washington.

Japan has been hit with 24 per cent levies on its exports to the US although these rates have, like most of Trump's tariffs, been paused for 90 days. A 10 per cent universal rate remains in place, as does a 25 per cent duty on cars, a mainstay of Japan’s export-reliant economy.

Akazawa asked the US team to convey their priorities in order of importance, the Yomiuri said.

Trump has lambasted Japan for what he said was a 700 per cent tariff on rice -- a figure Japan says is based on outdated international rice prices.

It remains to be seen whether Trump’s Republican administration would focus on rice, as exports to Japan come from California, a Democratic-leaning state.

Even before Trump’s tariffs, Japan had been increasing its imports of staple rice in the past year as domestic prices have skyrocketed due to a supply shortage.