Japan’s debt to gdp is about 230% and has been over 100% (considered the tipping point for a currency) for nearly 20 years.
They need the US and it’s trade deficit. They’re in too weak a position to go anywhere near a trade war with the US. Tariffs would kill them.
Well, they own a lot of our national debt. Perhaps, if they agree to renegotiate the interest rates and other details of those loans, then maybe Pres. Trump will not need to use tariffs against them. He was just recently talking about renegotiating our debt with foreign lenders. I don’t think Trump wants the same solutions for each country necessarily; he just thinks they need to give back to us somehow in turn.