Even long time Asian allies like Japan were not spared on Liberation Day of April 2 as it was threatened with 24 per cent tariff on American imports on top of the baseline 10 per cent and 25 per cent on cars, auto parts, aluminium and steel. The saving grace was the US President Donald Trump’s 90-day grace period; a high level delegation soon got into business with Washington hammering out the framework for a deal. It hardly matters to the Trump administration that Japan’s global trade for fiscal 2024 is in the deficit of about $40 billion. What matters is that Tokyo’s surplus with the US is $63 billion. It is pointed out that in March 2025, Japanese exports to the US rose 3 per cent and to the rest of Asia minus China was also up by 5.5 per cent. But in this tariff game, it is not just automobiles and electronics that are on the table but also rice, an item of cultural value to Japan. Some feel that Tokyo may spring a surprise by importing more American rice as it also faces a domestic shortage that has been impacting prices. The failure of Tokyo to negotiate a comprehensive package could have a telling impact on its economy. One calculation is that Trump’s tariffs may cost 0.8 per cent of Japanese economic growth. Security sword But Nissan and Toyota are not all of the problem for Trump. Hanging over the tariff head is the security spending sword that the current dispensation has been threatening allies with. The concept of allies getting a free ride on defence is not the exclusive preserve of Trump, his predecessors have bowled the same googly but with varied intensity. The only difference is that the rhetoric has got more sharp and shrill from the time of the 2024 campaign. Since the time of the Mutual Security Treaty of 1952 and its subsequent revision in 1961, Japan has been the cornerstone of American security and strategic policy in Asia. There are close to 85 American military facilities in Japan with that country playing host to more US service personnel than in any other country. Point of contention The actual cost of this “sharing of the burden” is a point of contention. In an existing agreement signed with the Biden administration, it was agreed that Japan would provide Yen 1.0551 trillion (Over $8 billion) from fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2026. Trump recently made it known to the visiting Japanese Minister for tariff negotiations, Ryosei Akazawa, that Tokyo’s cost sharing is “too small”. Perhaps sensing something, defence officials in Tokyo immediately said that cost sharing on defence should not be combined with tariff negotiations. The issue of allies coughing up a “fair” share for security has long been on Trump’s radar although strategic experts have maintained that a distinction would have to be made between the quality, quantity and depth of commitments; not a mechanical counting of assets from the bottom of the ocean to outer space. In the present scheme of things, contributions would have to go beyond counting aircraft carriers, frigates, submarines and killer satellites to include high tech drones and electronic warfare. But there is bound to be a nagging suspicion of a link between tariffs and enhanced security spending. The potential is always there for an administration to come around and demand for higher outlays for American security and strategic guarantees. Failure to do so could entail threat of higher tariffs on exports. Either way the bottomline is clear: the ally ends up writing the cheque. The writer is a senior journalist who has reported from Washington DC on North America and UN Published on April 23, 2025