President Trump model and Japanese tariffs. Yonhap News. 

A White House official has indicated that an exemption measure for items exceeding a 15% tariff will also be applied to Japan, asahi Shimbun and Mainichi Shimbun reported on the 10th.

According to the reports, the U.S. government plans to include Japan in the scope of the exemption measure, which has so far only been applied to the European Union (EU).

Earlier, the Japanese government explained that immediately after reaching a tariff agreement with the United States in late last month, the U.S. decided to apply a 15% reciprocal tariff to items with a tariff rate below 15%, and not to add separate reciprocal tariffs to goods that already had a tariff rate exceeding 15%.

However, a presidential decree signed by U.S. President Donald Trump at the end of last month and published in the U.S. Federal Register in early this month did not include these details, resulting in a uniform 15 percentage point reciprocal tariff being added to existing tariffs.

In response, Japan's chief negotiator for the tariff talks, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Ryosei Akazawa, visited the United States on the 5th and held talks with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Rutnik and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. He stated that the U.S. would amend the presidential decree related to reciprocal tariffs at an appropriate time.

While both the U.S. and Japan have confirmed their intention to apply the reciprocal tariff exemption, Japanese media pointed out that the timing of its implementation is unknown because the presidential decree needs to be amended for it to be applied.

In this regard, a White House official told Asahi that "specific schedules have not yet been decided."

Akazawa, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, told reporters at Haneda Airport in Tokyo the previous day that it took 54 days for the U.S. to implement related measures after reaching an agreement on tariff issues with the UK, and explained, "It won't be in half a year or a year."

Asahi predicted that when the U.S. revises the reciprocal tariffs for Japan, it is likely to include the agreed-upon reduction in automobile tariffs in the presidential decree as well. The U.S. decided to lower Japanese automobile tariffs from the current 27.5% to 15%.

Mainichi explained that Jamie Jameson, representative of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) Office, is behind the background of the differing views between the U.S. and Japan regarding the application of reciprocal tariff exemptions.

The newspaper reported that Representative Jameson and U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass pressured the Japanese side by demanding the opening of the agricultural market and criticized Japan, especially Representative Jameson, at the U.S.-Japan summit held in Canada in June, making the same demands.

In response, Japan gradually excluded the hard-line Representative Jameson during the approximately three-month tariff negotiation process and focused on meetings with Secretary Rutnik and Secretary Bessent, it is reported.

Representative Jameson was not present when President Trump met with Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Akazawa for the final agreement.

Mainichi pointed out that "USTR is the entity in the U.S. government responsible for reciprocal tariffs," suggesting that the exemption measure might not have been shared within the U.S. government because a USTR official was not present at the time of the agreement.

It added, "There are voices of concern from the Japanese government regarding whether Representative Jameson, who was excluded from the U.S.-Japan tariff negotiations, can accept the agreement," and "there is a possibility that it will take time to revise (reciprocal tariffs)."

Meanwhile, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Akazawa announced the previous day that during his visit to the U.S., he reconfirmed that Japan would receive the lowest tariff rates if the U.S. imposes tariffs on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.

However, he stated that regarding semiconductor manufacturing equipment, "I understand it is normally included (in the scope), but we have not explicitly discussed it." Japan's export value of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to the U.S. is greater than that of electronic components such as semiconductors.

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