Virtually the whole world is waking up to the reality, not threat now, of President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs, but in few places will the sense of shock and resultant anxiety be greater than Japan, where a whopping 24 per cent has been slapped on exports to the US. The Japanese, who have grown used to a decent relationship with successive American administrations and a whopping trade surplus, will have many sleepless nights ahead.
The reaction here has not been one of anger or resentment – more stunned bemusement. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who did his best to cozy up to Trump on a recent summit in Washington (he presented Trump with a golden ‘kabuto’ helmet) has said the tariffs are ‘very hard to understand’. The morning news, which usually dilutes the hard stuff with plenty of baseball and cherry blossom updates, was dominated by the tariff story, with the general tone being one of alarm and confusion.
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