United States President Donald Trump has announced that he has struck a “massive” trade deal with Japan following months of fraught negotiations.

Under the agreement announced on Tuesday, the US will impose a 15 percent tariff on Japanese exports and Japan will invest $550bn in the US, Trump said.

“We just completed a massive Deal with Japan, perhaps the largest Deal ever made,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 Billion Dollars into the United States, which will receive 90% of the Profits.”

Japan will also open up to US exports of cars, rice and certain agricultural products, Trump said, adding that the deal would create “hundreds of thousands of jobs”.

“There has never been anything like it,” he wrote.

Speaking at a reception with members of the US Congress later on Tuesday, Trump said the agreement was a “great deal for everybody”.

“I always say it has to be great for everybody,” he said.

“It’s a great deal – A lot different from the deals in the past – I can tell you that.”

Japan had been facing a 25 percent tariff if Washington and Tokyo could not reach a deal by an August 1 deadline set by Trump.

Until now, Japanese exports have been subject to Trump’s baseline tariff of 10 percent.

Trump made no mention of his 25 percent tariff on automobiles or 50 percent tariffs on steel and aluminium, which had been sticking points in negotiations between Washington and Tokyo, but Japan’s public broadcaster NHK on Wednesday reported that the rate on auto exports would be set at 15 percent.

US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent hailed the deal as a “historic agreement”.

“I am happy to reaffirm our commitment to deepening this longstanding alliance and building the next chapter of US-Japan cooperation as we enter a new Golden Age under President Trump,” Bessent said on X.

The Japanese government did not immediately provide confirmation of the deal.

Japanese stocks rose following Trump’s announcement, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 up about 2 percent in early trading.

Trump’s announcement is potentially among the most significant of his trade deals so far, following preliminary agreements with the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, and a 90-day trade truce with China.

Japan, the world’s fourth-largest economy, is the US’s fifth-largest trading partner.

The US imported $148.2bn worth of Japanese goods in 2024, while Japan bought $79.7bn worth of US products, according to the US Census Bureau.

[Aljazeera]