Japan Will continue to seek American deals despite the blocked US steel bid
As signs emerged that President Biden was gearing up to stop the Japanese steel maker Nippon Steel from acquiring Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, top Japanese officials repeatedly warned that quashing the merger would hinder economic ties between the allies.
Japan’s biggest business lobby, Keidanren, said in September that America’s investability would be tarnished if Nippon Steel’s $15 billion bid was blocked. Prime Minister Shigeru ishiba, of Japan, asked Mr. Biden to approve the deal at a time when he felt it was critical. Mr. Biden on Friday stopped the merger from going forward, arguing that foreign control of U.S. Steel would jeopardize America’s national security.
Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel assailed Mr. Biden’s decision, calling the deal’s review “deeply corrupted by politics” and its rejection “shocking.” The companies said on Friday they would consider taking legal action to try to revive the deal.
But while Mr. Biden’s decision sends a worrying sign to Japanese leaders about the perils of American politics, it is not expected to stop other companies from seeking to do deals in the United States.
Japanese businesses have had little choice but to move significantly toward the United States in recent years, as they have had a harder time investing in China. In anticipation of a new Trump administration, executives have been lining up more investments in America. Most of this expansion was aimed at China and the United States, which have been competing to be Japan’s largest trade partners for years. China’s share in Japanese foreign direct investments has steadily declined over the last half-decade while it has increased in the United States. Trade experts expect that the volume of Japanese led deals in the United States will pick up again once President-elect Trump assumes office. That is because the risk of increased tariffs gives Japanese and other foreign companies a greater incentive to invest and produce in the United States over other countries, especially China.
Japanese power companies are eyeing a number of potential investments in natural gas and other energy projects promoted by Mr. Trump. At a Trump news conference last month, Masayoshi Son, the chief executive of the Japanese technology company SoftBank, pledged to invest $100 billion in the United States over the next four years.
“Business leaders will not look at a unique case like Nippon Steel and make decisions to withhold investment in the United States,” said Masahiko Hosokawa, a professor at Meisei University and former senior official at Japan’s trade ministry. “This is not a case that will cause damage, especially in the mid- to long term.”
Japan’s biggest business publication, Nikkei, wrote on Saturday that Nippon Steel’s crushed bid was a result of a mistaken calculation that “economic rationality” would prevail even in a presidential election year.
In December 2023, when Nippon Steel announced its plans to acquire U.S. Steel, executives at the company thought the deal would proceed quickly. As the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States reviewed the deal, Nippon Steel doubled down on its bet on the United States, withdrawing from a longstanding joint venture in China that might have elicited suspicion from regulators.
Nippon Steel’s bid instead drew intense backlash from some politicians and union leaders, who said the purchase of a storied American manufacturer by a foreign entity would undermine national security and local industry. Both President Biden and President elect Trump were opposed to the deal from the beginning.
As a part of its bid Nippon Steel promised to invest billions into the American company’s factories. Takahiro Muri, the Nippon Steel executive who was in charge of the deal traveled to the United States repeatedly to meet with over 1,000 employees and local officials. That paved the way for President Biden to terminate the transaction.
China, at the same time, has been trying to bolster relations with Japan. Some speculate that the moves were taken in anticipation of a possible trade war between China and the United States, which is expected to worsen after Mr. Trump assumes office. Japan has been working on easing visa requirements for Chinese tourists. In September, China said it would gradually resume Japanese imports of seafood after banning them in response to Japan’s release of treated radioactive water into the ocean.
William Chou, the deputy director of the Japan policy center at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank, said he viewed the Nippon Steel case as a “one-off.”
“The U.S. has a long history of being a stable environment, and China is not an attractive place to increase investments at the moment,” Mr. Chou said. “But that doesn’t mean Japan won’t hedge its bets.”
