A Toyota executive said Wednesday the Japanese carmaker never made a specific commitment to invest $10 billion in the United States, one day after President Donald Trump said the company planned to make such an investment during his visit to Japan.
Trump told reporters Tuesday evening while in Japan that Toyota, the biggest automaker in the world, would invest around $10 billion in America. But Hiroyuki Ueda, a senior Toyota official, said the company made no such clear promise in discussions with Japanese authorities and the U.S. Embassy before Trump arrived.
“During the first Trump administration, I think the figure was roughly around $10 billion, so while we didn’t say the same scale, we did explain that we’ll keep investing and providing employment as before,” Ueda told reporters at the Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo. “So, probably because of that context, the figure of about $10 billion came up.”
Ueda stressed that Toyota did not tell officials it would put $10 billion into American operations over the coming years. He also said investment talks never came up when Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda had a short conversation with Trump at a U.S. Embassy gathering Tuesday night.
Trump’s Japan visit produces little concrete action
The confusion over Toyota’s investment plans came during Trump’s three-day Japan visit, which wrapped up Wednesday. The trip featured plenty of warm words between American and Japanese leaders but produced little concrete action on a massive $550 billion investment program Japan has promised.
Trump spent Monday through Wednesday in Japan, where he praised Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi repeatedly and talked about a new “golden age” for relations between the two countries as reported by Cryptopolitan.
Trump met with Takaichi, who became Japan’s first woman prime minister, on Tuesday. He welcomed her promise to speed up certain initiatives and put his signature on agreements covering trade and other matters.
Despite all the ceremony, not a single project moved forward under Japan’s $550 billion investment commitment while Trump was in the country. Two Japanese officials confirmed that the program, which calls for Japan to fund projects that America will control, has not actually started.
“No specific projects have been finalized at this point,” Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said Tuesday when asked about the pledge.
An agreement signed in early September by then-economic revitalization minister Ryosei Akazawa and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick lays out how the process should work. Projects will get recommended by a committee led by the commerce secretary, then the president must approve them.
“We can’t say for sure how long the process will take at this stage,” Akazawa, now serving as Japan’s trade minister, told reporters Tuesday.
Trump headed to Korea after leaving Japan, where another big investment promise, $350 billion this time, has gotten stuck. Arguments over how fast the money should flow, where it comes from, how projects get picked, and how profits get divided have slowed things down there.
Fact sheets list potential projects
Japanese trade and finance officials put out a fact sheet about the $550 billion program during Trump’s stay.
The paper lists 21 American and Japanese companies interested in taking part, with some information about possible projects and their business size based on investment or revenue figures. Companies mentioned include Panasonic with energy storage systems and Westinghouse with small nuclear reactors.
The White House released its own statement Tuesday naming project types like energy, artificial intelligence, electronics, critical materials, manufacturing, and logistics, with estimated investment amounts.
Akazawa said nobody knows yet how many listed projects will happen or how much financing will come from Japanese institutions. He noted the framework stays open to companies from other countries and could involve financing from banks outside Japan and America too.
The uncertainty around the investment program continues as trade negotiations between the two countries face ongoing challenges over various trade issues.
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