Overview
- U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will attend the U.S. national day at Expo 2025 in Osaka on July 19, then meet Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tokyo on July 18.
- His U.S. delegation will include Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa are slated to arrive around July 23 to launch a competitiveness alliance with Japan.
- Polls indicate Ishiba’s ruling coalition faces a possible upper house majority loss in the election scheduled days before the tariff hike takes effect.
- The talks represent Japan’s bid to break a seven-round deadlock in negotiations since April and to halt President Trump’s planned 25% tariff increase on Japanese imports, set for August 1.