Iwaya calls U.S. tariffs 'regrettable' in talks with Rubio

It is simply impractical, frankly preposterous to force consumers in Japan to buy high cost item products they simply don't desire.

I have brought a new Honda civic, I brought the car because out of all the makes and models I test drove I found the civic a nice fit.

It is that simple.

You found the Civic a nice Fit?

You've been swindled!

You found the Civic a nice Fit?

mmh surely the 2024 civic is a newer model and more spacious than the aging Honda Fit. Or was it jazzed?

I do enjoy the Civic, Namahage, I kept my Suzuki wagon R for local tips.

I drove the Civic recently from Kochi to Nagoya,

I don't feel swindled, I did splash out I bought a Type R.

It doesn't disappoint.

iron man.....

シビック タイプアール｜Honda公式サイト

https://www.honda.co.jp/CIVICTYPE-R/

Maybe not to your tastes but I find the car quite exhilarating.

I think President Trump approach, if he wants a level trade playing field, falling back on brute force is a fools errand.

Trump has made detailed some fair points though.

In 2024, Japan shipped about 1.37 million vehicles to the United States, accounting for 28.3 percent of its total exports to the world's largest economy in terms of value, according to official Japanese trade data.

And 70% are manufactured in factories in the United States.

Japan has no tariffs on imported cars, trucks or buses. But Trump has constantly carped that very few American cars are driven in Japan and many other countries.

So if Trump wants to "level the playing field" that would mean no tariffs on Japanese cars imported from Japan.

Regarding Japan, Trump aides have claimed that American car brands are unpopular due to structural barriers, such as safety regulations.

With the exception of Jeep models, I have never seen a US made vehicle with right hand drive. Seems that's why Jeep can sell in Japan but others can't.

Who started this oddball translation of 残念 as "regrettable"? It's usually translated, and accurately, as "unfortunate".

Who started this oddball translation of 残念 as "regrettable"? It's usually translated, and accurately, as "unfortunate".

This.

ever wondered how successful japanese car companies would have been in the u.s. if they sold right-hand drive only? oh, and the car radio frequency doesn’t have the same range. oh, and no service support.

i’m sure americans would have flocked to buy them.

u.s. trade negotiations are usually based on perfunctory demands, like the recent one that japan must pay more for u.s. military in japan.

the funniest one was when the u.s. trade representative demanded that toyota be ordered by the government to sell american cars.

Deo Gratias Today 10:27 pm JST

“U.S. core consumer prices have just dropped to their lowest level in nearly four years.

So all of that inflation and economic malaise that the progressives are predicting, so far at least, doesn't seem to be a big worry.“

cherry picking. that must have come from fox news. core consumer prices don’t include food and energy.

and that has gone up. a complete fabrication.

Japan is the largest foreign holder of US Debt. Collectively, Europe is number two. China is number three.

US Gov't debt matures every day and has to be rolled over into new debt. As such the US Treasury holds 440 auctions a year and has a sell $28.5 Trillion dollars in debt every year. Japan, Europe and China, if they decided to act in unison, could seriously hurt the US Economy overnight.

Hell, if they decide to stop buying out debt (which is already starting to happen at an institutional level) it will cause damage to the US economy.

motytrahToday 05:22 am JST

Japan is the largest foreign holder of US Debt. Collectively, Europe is number two. China is number three.

US Gov't debt matures every day and has to be rolled over into new debt. As such the US Treasury holds 440 auctions a year and has a sell $28.5 Trillion dollars in debt every year. Japan, Europe and China, if they decided to act in unison, could seriously hurt the US Economy overnight.

And what do you think the impact on the currency manipulators including China might be?

Deo GratiasMar. 14 10:27 pm JST

U.S. core consumer prices have just dropped to their lowest level in nearly four years.

Let's see some data post tariffs.

Attention Trump people: BYD is in Japan and not in the USA. Why doesn't China get on the Trump's case about that? Tesla is now hated by non Trump people and feel embarrassed for buying into one of those Hitler mobiles. But they are still on sale in Japan. Tesla stock is down a lot.

Bernanke and some Obama economic advisers earlier said tariffs didn't have much effect on inflation. Most mainstream reporters get the economics wrong. If country A imposes a tariff of X% on country B, each country may suffer. A, the importing country, may get a price hike on the item tariffed ranging between 0 to X percent; B, the exporting country, may get a price drop on that item within that range too. How much price disadvantage each gets hinges on who depends on whom more. This is econ 101. It doesn't matter which party gets to pay the tariff directly; the market has a way of allocating pain depending on relative reliance ("elasticity"). Also, the authoritative upper division level trade textbook of Krugman (a Democrat) has a theorem that says there is always an optimum tariff level which actually benefits the side imposing it. The reporters writing political stories usually don't know economics and they may be biased too.

Countries and their politicians like Iwaya that have raised their tariffs and non-tariff barriers to protect their companies within their domestic market and thus to increase prices, profits and tax revenues.

But their consumers suffer higher from higher prices and damage to their economic growth.

Not surprisingly, such Politicians & Bureaucrats garner LOTS of $Support from companies they protect via high tariffs, many refer to such $donations or $contributions.

Thus, countries with high tariff and non-tariff barriers historically attract little FDI, further damaging their economic growth, but Elites like Iwaya always do $Well!

No surprise Iwaya HATES reciprocal US tariffs and non- tariff barriers. His protected company constituency will either have to reshore to US, be burdened by 'reciprocal' tariffs in US market and thus uncompetitive, or agree to lower Japanese tariffs and loose his political $clout with his protected domestic company constituency.