Japan's top tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, said on Saturday he planned to visit Washington next week to hold further ministerial-level talks with the U.S.

Unlike the European Union, the Japanese government has made no indication it plans to impose any kind of reciprocal tariff on the U.S.

Japan told Group of 20 countries that tariffs aren’t the right way to fix imbalances, and that countries facing such situations need to address them through domestic efforts, according to Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato.

TOKYO, July 17 (Reuters) - Japan's top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa held talks with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on U.S. tariffs on Thursday, as Tokyo races to avert a 25% levy that will be imposed unless a deal is clinched by an August 1 deadline.

For Americans who were awaiting the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, the delay of U.S. pre-orders for the gaming console this April was one indication of what’s to come.

Exports fell for a second straight month in June, fueling fears that U.S. tariffs will halt Japan’s economic recovery and complicate the central bank’s policy plans.

Japan protects domestic production of rice, its staple grain, with a tariff of about $2.38 per kilogram on imports beyond a tax-free quota of roughly 770,000 tons.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba clung on Monday even after his coalition suffered what he called an “extremely regrettable” election result, as painful new US tariffs loom. In Sunday’s election Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP),