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Japan has said it will not sacrifice its farmers to secure tariff exemptions from the US, as Tokyo and Washington hardened their positions in a rice diplomacy stand-off and hopes of an imminent trade deal between the allies faded.
The comments from Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi on Tuesday came as Donald Trump cast Japan, among other countries, as “spoiled” and the latest round of trade negotiations in Washington ended without clear progress.
“We are not thinking about doing anything that would sacrifice the farm sector,” Hayashi said.
Weeks of negotiations have produced a number of proposals aimed at breaking a deadlock, including Japan buying more US energy and agricultural products and new joint funding mechanisms for US manufacturing, according to people familiar with the talks.
But none has succeeded at shifting the Trump administration’s commitment to reducing its trade deficit with Japan, which stood at $63bn for the Japanese financial year ending in March.
But in a post on his Truth Social site on Monday, Trump focused his ire on rice.
“To show people how spoiled Countries have become with respect to the United States of America, and I have great respect for Japan, they won’t take our RICE, and yet they have a massive rice shortage,” wrote Trump.
The combination of a poor harvest and policy have driven rice prices to more than double in the past year, causing temporary shortages, huge queues for cheaper rice and forcing the government to tap its strategic rice reserve to provide relief.
Japanese rice production has for decades been an intensely political issue. The crop commands an outsized national importance and farmers have been a crucial base of support for the long-ruling Liberal Democratic party.
The US exports some rice tariff free to Japan under a World Trade Organization “minimum access” agreement, but Japan imposes a levy on any imports beyond a 770,000 tonne limit.
Tokyo had initially hoped for a fast-track trade deal with Trump. But with both sides dug in, the LDP now faces the probability of a campaign for upper house elections on July 20 without a deal in place, according to people with direct knowledge of negotiations. That will raise the risk for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is suffering low approval ratings and has a relatively fragile hold on parliament.
It also comes as clouds are gathering over a Japanese economy that depends heavily on its car industry. The country’s automotive industry directly and indirectly employs more than 5.5mn people, according to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.
Tokyo has consistently demanded a full exemption from Washington’s blanket 25 per cent tariff on automotive imports, as well as the revocation of the 24 per cent “reciprocal” tariffs that Trump has threatened to impose on Japan. Those levies have been paused until a July 9 deadline to sign a trade deal.
But Japan’s chances of securing any tariff exemption in the short term appeared to be low and falling, said two people close to discussions.
In an interview with Fox News last weekend, Trump bemoaned the “unfair” trading relationship in blunt terms, claiming that the US “[takes] millions and millions” of Japanese cars, while the Japanese “won’t take our cars”.
Japan’s largest auto companies have established large manufacturing facilities in the US over decades. Car and truck exports to the US totalled 1.37mn vehicles in 2024, with the automotive sector representing about 28 per cent of Japan’s goods exports to the US.
The US, in turn, exports few vehicles to Japan, where American car models are generally seen as too large and fuel consumptive.
“I could send one [letter] to Japan: ‘Dear Mr Japan, here’s the story’,” Trump continued. “You’re going to pay a 25 per cent tariff on your cars.”
