U.S. President Donald Trump has condemned Japan for not importing American rice resulting Tokyo in pressure who is grappling to seal the trade deal before the implementation of reciprocal tariffs from July 9 onwards.
Tokyo has witnessed a domestic shortage and a hike in prices that resulted in imports this year. However, its rice market is protected with trade Barriers.
Japan imports about 770,000 metric tons of rice tariff-free every year. In the last year to March 2025, 45% was from US out of the total 767,000 tons that Japan imported.
To resolve the issue of Price hike over the past years, the finance ministry suggested to expand imports of staple rice, fundamental to its national food security and consumed at meals rather than used for feed or as an ingredient in other products – asserting htta that lifting the 100,000-ton tariff-free cap could led to stabilise supply.
An annual report released by the U.S. Trade Representative in March, cited how Washington slammed the import of Japan’s rice and considering its distribution system as non-transparent. Further adding that it restricted the U.S. exporters’ ability to have Japanese consumers.
A surge in Japan’s rice imports
Japanese rice imports have witnessed a surge due to the prices hike around a year ago. For the first time in seven years, tariff-free imports of staple rice have recorded the 100,000-ton cap in the fiscal year that ended in March 2025 in which about 60,000 tons imported from the U.S.
Apart from this, the farm ministry presented the June a tender that took place in September for the first 30,000 tons of tariff-free to offer rice at cheap and economical prices to its consumers from the imported rice of this year. 25,541 tons came United states while 1,500 tons from Australia and 708 tons from Thailand out of total rice tendered.
Additionally, as per the data given by finance ministry, private companies imported around 10,600 tons in the month of May alone, in which around three-quarters came from the U.S. in the case of tariffed staple rice. That compares with total imports of 3,004 tons for all of fiscal 2024.
Last Trade Deal of US-JAPAN
In 2019, the last trade deal was sealed by US President Trump in with then-Japanese PM Shinzo Abe.
Notably, US aimed to restore the Farmers’ lost market share when Trump took US off from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact in 2017. Japan did not make concession on rice however, it made concessions on U.S. beef and pork, agreeing to gradually lower or eliminate tariffs. Under TPP, Japan would have accepted 70,000 tons of U.S. staple rice per year tariff-free under a U.S.-specific quota Nonetheless, it was not added in the trade deal.