President Trump’s trade agreement with Japan, announced this week, has intensified pressure on South Korea to cut a deal that doesn’t leave it at a disadvantage relative to its biggest rival in East Asia, the New York Times reported. Kim Jung-Kwan, South Korea’s industry minister, who arrived in Washington on Wednesday for negotiations, pledged an “all-out effort” to strike a deal by the Aug. 1 deadline to stave off a 25 percent tariff that the White House threatened in April and again this month. Moving forward, Mr.
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The U.S. and Japan have reached a trade agreement, President Trump wrote in a social-media post Tuesday evening, saying he would set his so-called reciprocal tariffs at 15% for the country, the Wall Street Journal reported. Under the deal, Japan will invest $550 billion in the U.S., Trump said in his post on Truth Social. The U.S. will receive 90% of the profits from the investments, he added, without providing further details. Japan will also open to trade, Trump said, listing goods including cars and trucks, rice and other agricultural products.
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Jolted by the threat of sweeping U.S. tariffs and “unfair” Chinese trade practices, the European Union and Japan on Wednesday launched a “competitiveness alliance” to expand bilateral trade ties, promote business cooperation and explore ways to diversify critical mineral supply chains, the Japan Times reported. The move comes as both sides have faced increased economic pressure from Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Washington had reached a new trade deal with Tokyo that leaves in place some tariffs, but the EU still faces a 30% levy with an Aug. 1 deadline.
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A slight easing in Japan’s consumer inflation is welcome news for the central bank, but stubbornly high food prices will be of concern for policymakers whose hands remain tied by tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reported. Core consumer prices, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, rose 3.3% from a year earlier in June, government data showed Friday. That compared with May’s 3.7% rise, and matched the forecast in a poll of economists by data provider Quick.
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Japan’s exports fell for a second straight month in June, fueling fears that U.S. tariffs will halt the nation’s economic recovery and complicate the central bank’s policy plans, the Wall Street Journal reported. Exports fell 0.5% compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Finance on Thursday. That was an improvement from May’s 1.7% drop but well short of an LSEG-compiled forecast for a 0.5% increase. Japan’s shipments to the U.S. slid 11.4% from a year earlier in June, highlighting the impact of higher tariffs.
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President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the U.S. will probably "live by the letter" on tariffs with Japan and may have another trade deal coming up with India, following his announcement of an accord with Indonesia on Tuesday, Reuters reported. "We have some pretty good deals to announce," Trump told reporters at the start of a meeting with Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa at the White House. He said he would also discuss trade issues with the Bahraini leader.
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Anxiety over U.S. tariffs has been spreading across Japan, a central bank report shows, sending a worrying signal about the corporate outlook as trade uncertainty deepens, the Wall Street Journal reported. At a branch managers’ meeting held Thursday, the Bank of Japan’s local heads said that growing worries over higher U.S. tariffs have turned companies cautious about investment plans. Orders from the U.S. have also declined for some companies, a summary of the meeting showed.
The number of corporate bankruptcies in Japan in the first half of 2025 rose to the highest level in 11 years, with those hurt by a labor shortage showing a notable increase, a survey by a credit research company showed Tuesday, Japan Today reported. The failures involving debts of at least 10 million yen were up 1.2 percent from the same period a year earlier, rising for the fourth consecutive year and reaching their highest level since 2014, according to Tokyo Shoko Research.
Sentiment in Japan's service sector improved slightly in June, a government survey showed on Tuesday, as solid demand for summer clothing and leisure offset the gloom from U.S. tariffs, Reuters reported. But corporate bankruptcy cases in the first half of this year rose 2.4% from a year earlier to hit a 12-year high of 5,003, a survey by private think tank Teikoku Databank showed, as rising raw material and labour costs hit margins. The batch of data highlight the fragile nature of Japan's economy, which is expected to see the strain from U.S.