<figure id="attachment_435203" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-435203" style="width: 3000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="d5e996d9"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/08/af8574ff7a1d1bb51d76d02c30db6918.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-435203" class="wp-caption-text">Akazawa was happy to wear the &#8220;MAGA hat&#8221; presented to him by Trump&#8217;s Grand Duchy, but &#8230;&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
<h2> Regarding tariff rates, the U.S. side admits fault and corrects it.</h2>
 Confusion continues in Nagata-cho after the Upper House election. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, 68, has lost a large number of seats in the upper house, but he is determined to continue as prime minister, and the former Abe faction is now furiously trying to &#8220;get rid of Ishiba.
 The former Abe faction group has been mounting an aggressive campaign to &#8220;take down Ishiba.&#8221; They had hoped to drag him down in one fell swoop by holding him responsible for the disastrous Upper House election defeat, but their first attempt to &#8220;take down Ishiba&#8221; failed due to the &#8220;Don&#8217;t Quit Ishiba&#8221; demonstrations and the rising support rate in various opinion polls. The anti-Ishiba group then turned its attention to the &#8220;lost points&#8221; in the Japan-U.S. tariff negotiations.
 President Trump&#8217;s high tariff policy has sent tremors through the global economy. Prime Minister Ishiba described it as a &#8220;national crisis,&#8221; and immediately sent Ryosei Akazawa, 64, the minister in charge of economic revitalization, to the U.S. to negotiate. On July 23, the tariff negotiations were concluded in a blitz. In exchange for lowering tariff rates on automobiles and other goods from 27.5% to 15%, the U.S. pledged to open its markets for U.S. goods and vehicles and to invest 80 trillion yen in the United States.
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 Some have called it an &#8220;unequal treaty&#8221; because 90% of the profits from the 80 trillion yen investment will go to the U.S. However, the economic impact on the U.S. economy has been minimal. The Nikkei Stock Average surged 3.51% on the 23rd.
 A reporter for a national newspaper said, &#8220;It&#8217;s better than not being able to see the future. It is better than no future. &#8230;&#8230;
 In the midst of all this, the U.S. began applying &#8220;reciprocal tariffs&#8221; to various countries and regions on August 7. Until now, the Japanese government has explained that items below 15% will be subject to the 15% tariff, while items above 15% will remain the same.
 However, it turns out that in reality, the 15% will be added uniformly. The timing of the implementation of the 15% tariff on automobiles is also unclear, and the failure to draw up a written agreement with the U.S. administration has led to a flood of criticism from within the ruling and opposition parties. Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the People&#8217;s Democratic Party of Japan, told X
 Isn&#8217;t it just that the U.S. is playing us for fools? If the facts differ from what is being explained to the public and the Diet, it is a big problem that deserves a vote of no confidence. I demand an explanation from the Ishiba administration.
 Akazawa immediately traveled to the United States.
 Akazawa immediately went to the U.S. to press for a review of the tariff rates, and according to media reports as of August 8, the U.S. side has admitted fault and will now take steps to revise the presidential order. The U.S. side will refund the overcharged amount retroactively to the 7th.
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 He also confirmed with the U.S. side that he will issue a presidential decree on the reduction of tariffs on automobiles at the same time as the amendment of the presidential decree. Mr. Akazawa held a press conference there.
 &#8220;There is no discrepancy in the understanding between the U.S. and Japan.
 Akazawa stressed that &#8220;there is no discrepancy between Japan and the U.S.&#8221; at the press conference. One political insider said, &#8220;Akazawa&#8217;s assessment of Ishiba and Akazawa is as follows.
 A political source said, &#8220;We still have a long way to go before we can evaluate Ishiba and Akazawa. &#8230;&#8230;&#8221;
 A source in the political world prefaced his comments by saying, &#8220;It&#8217;s not so much that they&#8217;re being slammed.
 Akazawa has been in the negotiating table nine times so far. Akazawa has traveled to the U.S. for negotiations nine times so far. This is outstanding among friendly countries. This time, too, he went in without an appointment. On social networking sites, he is called &#8220;Mile Akazawa,&#8221; and people sarcastically refer to the fact that he accumulates frequent flyer miles each time he travels to the U.S., but he denies this. I think he&#8217;s a modest guy, but I think he does his job honestly,&#8221; he says.
 He is a &#8220;plain guy, but I think he does his job honestly.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Mr. Akazawa, who calls himself &quot;Lat-chan,&quot; is ......"></div>
The opposition parties are emphasizing the importance of the existence of a written agreement, but this time we are dealing with President Trump, for whom common sense is not an option. If he says, &#8220;I&#8217;ve changed my mind,&#8221; the agreement will be immediately torn up and thrown away. Therefore, the first thing Akazawa and the rest of the Japanese negotiating team did was to get a grasp of President Trump&#8217;s &#8220;characteristics.
 Akazawa&#8217;s first target was Secretary of Commerce Ratnick, a key official in the Trump administration. Along with Treasury Secretary William Bessent, Secretary Ratnick is a key figure in the Trump administration and has the president&#8217;s highest level of confidence. In a short period of time, Akazawa even came to call the Commerce Secretary &#8220;Lat-chan.
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<h2> Mr. Ishiba can&#8217;t quit smoking cigarettes and Akazawa.</h2>
 He was invited to Commerce Secretary Ratnick&#8217;s home, where he gave him an in-depth lecture on President Trump&#8217;s characteristics. We even went so far as to play a hypothetical question-and-answer session in which he would say, &#8216;If President Trump asks for this, this is what I&#8217;m going to say back. Mr. Akazawa is a meek man, and I am uneasy about the fact that he flaunts such efforts, but his reputation in the business community is not bad at all,&#8221; said a reporter from a business magazine.
 The situation still does not allow for optimism, but if Akazawa can pull through, he will be a great asset as a politician. As he says himself, &#8220;I&#8217;ve experienced this negotiation with the U.S.
 &#8220;If I experience this negotiation with the U.S., I have nothing to fear anymore.
 But what is his reputation in Nagatacho?
 We asked political commentator Harumi Arima about his assessment,
 He said, &#8220;Akazawa-san was a nobody in the party, but because he is a member of the Ishiba group, he was heavily used. He told us that he is a necessary person for Mr. Ishiba, saying, &#8216;My hobbies are smoking and Akazawa can&#8217;t stop. He may have negotiated hard with the U.S., but he is also prone to flirtatious behavior such as giving a thumbs-up when getting into his car after the meeting, wearing a MAGA hat with President Trump, and calling him &#8220;Ratochan. In Nagata-cho, people who get carried away are no good. He may be proud of his ability in organizing the negotiations, but the people around him don&#8217;t think so highly of him,&#8221; said a harsh voice in Nagata-cho.
 He told us about the harsh opinions of the people in Nagata-cho.
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 Mr. Akazawa has managed to put together the difficult tariff issue. Will his reputation in Nagata-cho improve in the future?

 Molly Riley/White House/ZUMA Press/Afro

 Akamasa Akazawa, Minister of State for Economic Revitalization, negotiated the reduction of tariff rates on automobiles and other goods from 27.5% to 15%. His true face and reputation, which he professes, "My hobby is stonewalling," are ......

Akazawa, Minister of State for Economic Revitalization, &#8220;came to the U.S. without an appointment&#8221; was effective&#8230; &#8220;True Reputation&#8221; in Nagata-cho.

Akazawa, Minister of State for Economic Revitalization, “came to the U.S. without an appointment” was effective… “True Reputation” in Nagata-cho.

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