Trump had just announced significant progress in the negotiations with Japan, but unexpectedly, the Japanese media turned around and exposed the bottom line of the US! On April 17th, Trump said on social media that he was very honored to have just met with the Japanese trade delegation. Significant progress. However, coincidentally, on the same day Trump made his post, the Nikkei News revealed the inside story. The Nikkei News reported that minister-level consultations were temporarily added without the coordination of the parties involved.
The Japanese media stated that this was extremely rare, reflecting the anxious mood of the US side eager to achieve results as soon as possible. The Japanese media pointed out that if the negotiations with allies do not go smoothly, it may expose weaknesses for the US side in its tariff confrontation with China. Clearly, Trump said there was significant progress, but the report by the Japanese media suggests that rather than achieving significant progress, Trump is so eager to achieve such progress that he could not wait and hastily joined the negotiations with Japan.
This move by Trump shows how restless he is. If the Japanese media can see the US side's eagerness to achieve results early, then how could the Japanese negotiation representatives not be aware of it? Since now it is the US that wants to achieve results, the Japanese representatives at the negotiating table are probably feeling more confident. In fact, Japan is very clear that they hold important cards. One of these key cards is that China's countermeasures have put immense pressure on the US.
Trump's modus operandi is to repeatedly exaggerate, with the purpose of creating unpredictability through this style, even resorting to false facts to create deterrence, forcing the negotiating opponent to make greater concessions. However, since Trump has only ever used this one tactic, Japan is likely no stranger to it. The negotiations between the US and Japan are probably far from as smooth as Trump claims them to be.
Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1829610588377099/
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