Ishiba: No major concessions in the tariff negotiations and no rush to reach an agreement

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Japan does not plan to make major concessions and will not rush to reach a deal in ongoing tariff talks with the United States.

"I don't think we should make major concessions in order to conclude the negotiations quickly," Ishiba told parliament on Monday, Reuters reported.

However, he ruled out imposing counter-tariffs on US imports.

"When negotiating with the United States, we need to understand the logic and emotional elements behind the arguments of US President Donald Trump," he said.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda also warned that the US tariffs "could put downward pressure on the global and Japanese economies through multiple channels".

The Japanese delegation will be in Washington on Thursday for trade talks that are expected to cover tariffs, non-tariff barriers and exchange rates.

Any discussion of currencies would be held by Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and U.S. Treasury Secretary John Bessant. "Both countries believe that excessive market volatility will have an adverse impact on the economy," Mr Kato said.

In addition to Japan's huge trade surplus with the United States, Trump has also accused Japan of deliberately keeping the yen weak, which has led to widespread expectations that the United States may ask Japan in negotiations to strengthen monetary policy intervention to push up the yen's exchange rate. The Bank of Japan's policy of keeping interest rates very low is also likely to come under criticism in the talks, despite the recent weakening of the dollar, which has boosted the yen.

The United States, a longtime ally, had planned to impose reciprocal tariffs of 24 percent on Japanese products, but Trump suspended the tariffs on April 9 for 90 days, during which time the tariffs were reduced to 10 percent.

However, the 25 percent tariff on cars is still in effect, which will undoubtedly have a serious impact on Japan, as auto exports account for about 28 percent of Japan's total exports to the United States, which is Japan's largest export market.