Japan’s top trade negotiator canceled his trip to the U.S. because of complications with the U.S.-Japan trade deal.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi planned to visit Washington from Aug. 28-30 to negotiate tariff agreements with President Donald Trump. However, Hayashi said in a statement that some points required “further technical discussion,” CNBC reported.

It’s not clear whether Hayashi will reschedule his trip. An anonymous government source told Reuters that the Secretary could arrive next week, while the Japanese media outlet Kyodo News reported that plans have not been decided.

Trump’s July negotiations with Japan locked the country’s exports at a 15% baseline tariff. But without an official agreement for auto tariffs specifically, Hayashi seeks a presidential order to lower tariffs on cars and auto parts.

“We just completed a massive Deal with Japan, perhaps the largest Deal ever made,” Trump wrote in a social media post . “Perhaps most importantly, Japan will open their Country to Trade including Cars and Trucks, Rice and certain other Agricultural Products, and other things,” he added.

The new U.S.-Japan trade agreement also includes a $550 billion fund for Japan to make new U.S. investments, overseen by President Trump.

"The Japanese will finance projects chosen by the United States, we'll give it to an operator who runs it and the profits will be split 90% to the United States of America and 10% to Japan,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg TV . He laid out an example where the U.S. directs Japan to invest in American pharmaceutical or semiconductor production.

The agreement signals a broader protectionist shift in policy that’s establishing the highest U.S. tariffs in a century. Japan is the sixth-largest U.S. trading partner, with imports totaling $192 billion in 2024, per federal data. U.S. exports to Japan amounted to $129 billion last year.

The first Trump administration signed a limited trade agreement with Japan in 2020. That deal saw Tokyo shrink or eliminate tariffs on U.S. pork, cheese, and other agricultural products. In exchange, Washington agreed to do the same for certain manufactured Japanese goods such as bikes and musical instruments.

That deal went out the window in early April when Trump imposed a 24% import tax to kick off his global “reciprocal tariff” campaign. Those levies, including Japan’s, were later paused to allow time for negotiations to play out.

— Joseph Zeballos-Roig contributed to this article.