Politics Japan and Trump 2.0

Lothor said:
I do wonder about someone saying they are disappointed in Trump though. He's never done or said a single classy or kind thing in his 10 years in the public eye as a politician. For him, such a revolting comment is par for the course.
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Sometimes it surprises me how little people pay attention. A colleague I haven't interacted with much lives in Europe but was visiting our office recently. Turns out she's originally from South Africa so I made some comment/joke about Elon Musk and she said she didn't know he was South African until just recently. I found that almost shocking. And she's not super young either. Probably in her 40s.

A Japanese guy I work with is a low-key Trump supporter so we got into it a little bit at a nomikai the other day. His issue is a perceived lack of safety security in the Bay area (SFO) where he lives. You may have seen videos of people stealing from stores with no repercussions or Mark Rober's glitter bombs. That may be a concern/problem but why people think that a Trump presidency would help is incomprehensible to me.
 
thomas said:
More tariff bullying:

"Spoiled Japan" may not secure a US trade deal and could face tariffs of up to 35%. :rolleyes:


www.bbc.com

Donald Trump threatens Japan with tariff up to 35% as deadline looms

It would be well above the 24% tariff imposed on Japan as part of the so-called "Liberation Day" in April.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com


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Apart from his numerous faults, Trump is a bore with his incessant whining about the US being hard done by. Hopefully, Japan will tune out the noise.
 

Does Japan buy cars and rice from the US?

Yes. Contrary to what Trump told reporters this week, Japan bought $354.7m of rice from the US between May 2024 and April 2025, according to the trade data research group, Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC). Japanese rice imports from the US have in fact, increased since the price of locally grown rice has surged. An extreme heatwave in 2023 resulted in a substandard rice crop, prompting producers and manufacturers to stockpile rice that was available by early 2024.
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"Japan is different from other countries as we are the largest investor in the United States, creating jobs," Ishiba said on Wednesday during a debate with opposition leaders. "With our basic focus being on investment rather than tariffs, we'll continue to protect our national interest." Furthermore, Japan is in a stronger position than many other countries as it is the largest foreign holder of US debt. According to recent reports, Japan holds more than $1 trillion in US Treasury securities, which may give it leverage in trade talks.
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www.aljazeera.com

US-Japan trade deal – will this one be too tricky for Trump?

Trump says Japan is 'spoiled' and that he doubts the US will make a deal with the country.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
 
Yesterday, Trump issued the first set of formal notifications to trading partners, beginning with Japan and South Korea, outlining new tariff terms set to take effect on 1 August. According to the notices, imports from both Japan and South Korea will be subject to a 25% tariff. For Japan, this represents a one percentage point increase from the "reciprocal" rate announced on 2 April, while the rate for South Korea remains unchanged.

Japan and South Korea got away cheap: additional announcements followed later in the day, setting tariffs at 40% for goods from Myanmar and Laos, 36% for Thailand and Cambodia, 35% for Bangladesh, 32% for Indonesia, and 25% for both Malaysia and Kazakhstan. Tariffs were also imposed on South Africa at 30% and on Serbia at 35%.

Basically, he's bullying his allies into deals:

Trump told the allies that retaliatory tariffs will be met with additional tariffs. "If for any reason you decide to raise your Tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added to the 25% that we charge," he wrote in the letters. In his letter to Japan, Trump wrote that the new 25% tariff is separate from all sectoral tariffs, a reference to the sector-specific levies imposed for national security reasons, as outlined in Section 232 of the U.S. Trade Expansion Act of 1962. These include the 25% auto tariffs, which Japan has been negotiating to reduce. In the letters, the president left open a path to alter the tariffs.
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www.bbc.com

US tariffs: Trump threatens tariffs on 14 countries from August

President Trump says the US will impose a raft of import taxes on 14 countries after delaying his Liberation Day tariffs.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

Paywall alert:
asia.nikkei.com

Trump imposes 25% tariffs on Japan, South Korea, Malaysia

Myanmar and Laos see 40% rate, among slew of levies to take effect Aug. 1
asia.nikkei.com asia.nikkei.com
 
I guess the bright side is that American power will be reduced in the world as countries will diversify and form other alliances and trading partners. Should be a boost to China and India at least.
 
Ukigumo said:
I don't think it will, thomas. The rest of the world knows that what's going on is a 'Trump phenomenon' rather than American. Once he/Vance have gone gone and a decent person is in office, the rest of the world will rally around.
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That's a difficult one. Although Biden did much to restore America's international reputation, we're looking at a country that has now voted Trump in twice. Last year, two-thirds of the country chose not to vote against a fascist and insurrectionist with a track record in performative cruelty in a largely free and fair election. That's a pretty damning indictment of the country. I certainly won't be forgetting that.
 
It's a good point, but by the same token we should not 'forget' the Russian and Israeli people and that make me a little uncomfortable.

I generally try a use the phrase, '…governments of…' when criticising a country's actions, but you're correct in saying that a majority of those nation's citizens voted those disgusting governments into position.
 
Unless the demorats can come up with better people to run then they have so far , I'd place my money on a bet Vance will be next after Trump. It will be interesting to see if Musk's new political party goes anywhere. There are a lot of people that would be happy to see the Republican and Democrat parties both disappear.
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Grandpa Frank said:
Unless the demorats can come up with better people to run then they have so far , I'd place my money on a bet Vance will be next after Trump. It will be interesting to see if Musk's new political party goes anywhere. There are a lot of people that would be happy to see the Republican and Democrat parties both disappear.
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It's not the quality of the people. If that were true Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, George Santos, etc would never have been voted in in the first place since the "quality" of the people running against them was 10x better already. People talk about media manipulation, algorithms etc but I just don't get it. I can listen to those people directly. I don't need the media to tell me it's wrong to tell racist lies.
 
Not sure who to trust or believe anymore with today's media. Both sides have been caught in outright lies and twisting and bending the truth. I think most people will agree finding the real truth & facts on the internet is not easy. From what the DOGE investigation showed , our whole government seems to be corrupt and out to line their pockets , not help our country and it's people. At this point I'd have anyone involved in politics put on a good lie detector machine every 6 months to attempt to keep them honest. Trouble with that is , who would do the tests , LOL. The FBI and DOJ and most of courts have shown to lie and hide things at times in the past. At my age all I care about is a government that keeps my taxes low and leaves my gun collection alone. I think the only people happy with events here in the US are the conspiracy people in their tinfoil hats who have lots of material to promote. When things get to the point people are so angry , they are killing those they disagree with it worries me.
 
Grandpa Frank said:
Not sure who to trust or believe anymore with today's media. Both sides have been caught in outright lies and twisting and bending the truth. I think most people will agree finding the real truth & facts on the internet is not easy.
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I strongly recommend you do not get your news from the Internet. I know it's very easy to get it from that source but it's so contaminated as to be misleading. My other half uses the internet for her news. She'll often mention a remarkable news story she' s read about, and it's never mentioned anywhere else again; a piece of fiction.

I watch the news on two or three channels which have verifying departments that check stories (BBC/SKY/ITN) to ensure the credibility of their news stories. I form an opinion from those . There is 'Ground' which looks really good but I haven't subscribed to it yet.
Grandpa Frank said:
From what the DOGE investigation showed , our whole government seems to be corrupt and out to line their pockets , not help our country and its people. At this point I'd have anyone involved in politics put on a good lie detector machine every 6 months to attempt to keep them honest.
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Lie detectors are very unreliable and 'evidence' from them is inadmissible in court in the UK, at least. Psychopaths are very good at fooling them (lack of 'affect') so American politicians would have no problems cheating them.
Grandpa Frank said:
At my age all I care about is a government that keeps my taxes low
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How are things like infrastructure paid for if taxation levels are low? How do you keep your health care available for everyone…oh you in the ISA…forget about that last one. After being in Denmark recently and seeing what high taxation society and a government that uses that money wisely does for that country, I think they've got the right idea.
Grandpa Frank said:
and leaves my gun collection alone.
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Yikes!
Grandpa Frank said:
I think the only people happy with events here in the US are the conspiracy people in their tinfoil hats who have lots of material to promote. When things get to the point people are so angry , they are killing those they disagree with it worries me.
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I've started watching X Files recently (I've never really watched it before) and I'm convinced it is that drama that spawned conspiracy theorists in every avenue of life. Mulder has a lot to answer for.
 
When following the tariff negotiations between Japan and the US, you have to wonder if both parties are really on the same page:

  • It remains unclear whether the lowered tariffs on Japan and other countries, from 25% to 15%, for autos, steel, and other products will take effect. Japan's chief negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, stated that the difference between 25% and 15% will cost one automaker approximately Y100 billion ($675 million) per day.
  • The whole agreement has not been put into writing, a fact that the Japanese opposition parties raised to criticise PM Ishiba. Apparently, only the UK has secured a written agreement with the US, but Vietnam, the Philippines, the European Union and South Korea, like Japan, have not.

And the troubles started today: the Trump administration imposed a new 15% tariff on all Japanese imports, rejecting an exemption the Japanese government had said would apply to certain goods. In a federal register dated 6 August, the US listed what it described as updated reciprocal tariff rates for its trading partners, stating that a 15% surcharge would be added to existing tariffs on all items from Japan.

A White House official explained that the agreement with Japan involved a 15% reciprocal tariff. "That is on top of any pre-existing MFNs," the official said, referring to the most favoured nation tariff rates typically applied to other World Trade Organisation members. Japan had maintained that, under its trade agreement with the US, Japanese goods would be exempt from the new tariff if the current rate was already 15% or higher.

The uniform 15% reciprocal tariff applies to all other goods that are subject to tariffs under 15%, officials said. The federal register, however, showed that the exemption for goods with the existing tariff rates of 15% or higher will be granted only to the European Union. The new reciprocal tariffs took effect at 1:01 p.m. on Aug. 7 Japan time. Until now, the United States has levied a 10% reciprocal tariff on almost all trading partners, including Japan. If the tariff exemption is not extended to include Japan, domestic beef exporters will be hard hit, for example. Beef imports to the United States are subject to a 26.4% tariff. Japanese beef will be slapped with a 41.4% tariff without the exemption. If the exemption is applied, the tariff will remain at 26.4%.
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And in another baffling, but no longer surprising, development: Mr Trump considers the US$500 billion Japan pledged to invest in the US, "our money."

"I got a signing bonus from Japan of $550 billion – that's our money. It's our money to invest, as we like," Trump told CNBC in a telephone interview.

In his interview with CNBC, Trump described Japan's pledged investment as being similar to a signing bonus baseball players get, and drew comparisons to the deal reached between the U.S. and European Union, which includes a $600 billion investment offer. "And that's a gift. That's not like, you know, a loan," Trump said of the EU deal. "There's nothing to pay back. "There are no details. The details are $600 billion to invest in anything I want. Anything. I can do anything I want." A fact sheet issued by the European Commission on July 29 said that European companies have "expressed interest" in investing at least $600 billion in the U.S. by 2029, with a bold font note that the agreement with the United States is "not legally binding."
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www.japantimes.co.jp

Trump: The $550 billion pledged by Japan is ‘our money’

The U.S. president told CNBC that he is free to invest the funds however he wishes.
www.japantimes.co.jp www.japantimes.co.jp
 
I hope this mess encourages Japan and other countries to increase their resilience by diversifying their trade and producing more of their own stuff. Trump's playground bully tactic of trying to force other countries to buy unwanted and often inferior US products disgusts me.
 
Trump doesn't negotiate in good faith. It seems he rarely does anything in good faith. He's not like any other recent president the US has had.

And it would do everyone well to remember something that hasn't been talked about in a long time. However, it did get some attention when Trump ran the first time. Trump doesn't pay his bills. He has a long history of stiffing contractors. Here is one representative article from 2016.

www.yahoo.com

Donald Trump Has a Long History of Not Paying People for Working for Him, New Report Shows

Are the jobs Donald Trump plans on bringing back to make America great again paid positions?
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com
 

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