Mücahithan Avcıoğlu
30 June 2025•Update: 30 June 2025
ISTANBUL
US President Donald Trump on Monday announced that Japan will take "our rice" and that a letter will be sent to Japan informing them that higher tariffs will be imposed.
"To show people how spoiled Countries have become with respect to the United States of America, and I have great respect for Japan, they won’t take our RICE, and yet they have a massive rice shortage," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
"In other words, we’ll just be sending them a letter, and we love having them as a Trading Partner for many years to come," he added.
The US president's comments followed his previous remarks about these letters outlining new tariff requirements and trade conditions.
"What I want to do is, and what I will do just sometime prior to the ninth (of July), is we will send a letter to all these countries," Trump said in an interview with Fox News broadcast on Sunday.
The US suspended country-specific ad valorem tariff rates in April until July 9. The EU is also facing a deadline on that date.
The president explained that the letters would set shopping conditions for accessing US markets.
"We will send a letter, and we will say 'We were considered a great honor, and this is what you will have to do to shop in the United States ... We wish you a lot of luck,' and that is the end of the trend," Trump said.
Japan has been facing a rice crisis in the last eight months, as the price of rice soared 101.7% year-on-year in May, driving the inflation up to a two-year high of 3.7%.
While rising rice prices pushed inflation expectations higher, Japan was forced to import rice from South Korea for the first time in years.
