President Donald Trump met with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House, where Ishiba announced that Japan would invest $1 trillion in the United States.
“With the inauguration of President Trump, the momentum for Japanese companies to invest in the United States is even stronger. Today, I conveyed my willingness to cooperate together to elevate Japan’s investment in the United States to an unprecedented amount of $1 trillion,” Ishiba said through a translator.
“President Trump and myself also concurred to elevate the Japan-U.S. partnership to an even higher level through improving business environments and increasing bilateral investment and employment,” the prime minister said, “strengthening each other’s industries, leading the world in developing advanced technologies such as AI (…) and promoting efforts to harness the energy of the growing market in the Indo-Pacific.”
Trump declared that Japan’s Nippon Steel will also drop its purchase of U.S. Steel and instead invest in the company.
“They’ve agreed to invest heavily in U.S. Steel as opposed to own it,” Trump said. “And that sounds very exciting.”
Prior to leaving office, former President Joe Biden said he blocked the sale of U.S. Steel to Japanese firm Nippon Steel. The companies then sued the Biden administration, accusing it of violating the companies’ due process rights.
“From the outset of the process, both Nippon Steel and U. S. Steel have engaged in good faith with all parties to underscore how the Transaction will enhance, not threaten, United States national security, including by revitalizing communities that rely on American steel, bolstering the American steel supply chain, and strengthening America’s domestic steel industry against the threat from China,” the steelmakers stated. “Nippon Steel is the only partner both willing and able to make the necessary investments – including no less than $1 billion to Mon Valley Works and approximately $300 million to Gary Works as part of the $2.7 billion committed – to protect and grow U. S. Steel for the benefit of employees, the communities in which it operates, and the entire American steel industry.”
