Tokyo (Jiji Press) — Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has pledged to protect the global free trade system during Diet discussions on the tariff measures of U.S. President Donald Trump.
In a parliamentary debate of party leaders on Wednesday, Ishiba, president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, made the vow as Yoshihiko Noda, president of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, criticized economic revitalization minister Ryosei Akazawa’s actions in trade talks with Washington as akin to diplomacy under a tributary system.
Noda said that “the visual impression” made by Akazawa wearing a cap with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan is “very negative for Japan.”
Multiple U.S. cabinet members including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attended the tariff talks alongside Trump, Noda said, blasting Tokyo’s handling of the negotiations as “too weak and too late” despite Ishiba calling the tariff situation a national crisis.
“We ran thorough simulations of what would happen following a Trump victory” in last year’s U.S. presidential election, Ishiba said. “We’ll boost our (negotiation) system, but we don’t think it’s been inadequate.”
Noda demanded that the government appeal for “an international order that observes rules” in the meeting of the finance ministers and central bank heads of the Group of 20 advanced and emerging countries in Washington from Wednesday. He also proposed cooperation with the European Union.
Ishiba said that the objective of the U.S. tariffs is to create employment, adding Tokyo will “explain how much free trade will make both sides happy.”
“Cooperation between Japan and the EU would be of great significance,” he observed.
Also in the debate, Seiji Maehara, co-head of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), sought a constitutional revision to expand Japan’s right to collective self-defense, in view of Trump’s complaints about the heavy responsibility of U.S. forces under the Japan-U.S. security agreement.
Ishiba said “there should be a discussion on why the right to collective self-defense was inscribed in the U.N. Charter.”
Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, repeatedly urged Ishiba to clarify when the government will scrap the provisional gasoline tax surcharge as agreed in a three-way pact among the LDP, its coalition partner, Komeito, and the DPFP. Ishiba only said he wants to “continue discussions, including on whether a permanent source of funding for it can be found.”
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The party leaders debate was held for a total of 45 minutes as a joint committee hearing of both chambers of the Diet, Japan’s parliament. It was the first debate in the ongoing Diet session, with the previous such occasion seen last October.
Japan’s ruling and opposition parties have agreed to hold debates in May and June as well.