Japan eyes tariff deal with US after election results
TOKYO
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, center, and Japan's lead trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa, center right, with their delegations, pose for a group photo, at the Expo 2025 in Osaka, western Japan, Saturday, July 19, 2025. (Kyodo News via AP)
Japan’s top tariff negotiator said he is aiming to reach a trade agreement with the U.S. before reciprocal tariffs take effect on Aug. 1, Kyodo News agency reported Tuesday.
“I don’t have [such a concern],” Ryosei Akazawa told reporters on July 21 at an airport near Washington, DC when asked if Japan’s election results would complicate talks.
The ruling coalition lost its upper house majority elections on July 20.
“I believe that both Japan and the United States have a desire to reach some kind of agreement by then,” he added, referring to the upcoming deadline for a pause on President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC however that the administration is “more concerned with high-quality deals” and “we’re not going to rush for the sake of doing deals.”
Akazawa, in Washington for an eighth round of talks, arrived a day after the election, where Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition lost its upper house majority.
Before Akazawa's arrival, Bessent also pointed out that the priorities of the U.S. are not the internal workings of the Japanese government but getting the best deal for the American people.
Tokyo and Washington have been negotiating a deal to avoid 25 percent U.S. tariffs on Japanese exports to the world's largest economy.
On July 7, Trump notified several U.S. trading partners of increased country-specific "reciprocal tariff" rates, with Japan due to be subject to 25% tariffs as of Aug. 1 unless another deal is reached beforehand.
