Japan threatens to offload its $1 trillion US Treasury holdings if Trump trade talks don’t go well
By: cryptosheadlines|2025/05/02 12:45:01
0
Share
Airdrop Is Live CaryptosHeadlines Media Has Launched Its Native Token CHT. Airdrop Is Live For Everyone, Claim Instant 5000 CHT Tokens Worth Of $50 USDT. Join the Airdrop at the official website, CryptosHeadlinesToken.com Japan just pulled out the sharpest blade it’s got in the drawer — $1.13 trillion in US Treasury bonds. That’s what Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato waved in America’s face on Friday, right on national television.Asked if Japan would ever use its role as the world’s biggest foreign holder of US government debt as a weapon in trade talks with President Donald Trump’s administration, Kato didn’t blink. He said, “It does exist as a card,” and tossed that line like a lit match. “Whether or not we use that card is a different decision.”This wasn’t some offhand comment either. Japan has always avoided even talking about dumping Treasuries. But now, with Trump throwing around “reciprocal” tariffs like candy since April 2, Tokyo’s keeping its options open.That tariff stunt already sent US markets into a tailspin. Treasury yields spiked, bonds got dumped, and traders panicked. After the chaos, Trump paused the tariffs for 90 days, but of course, the damage was already done.Japan uses bond threat to push back on Trump’s tariff warKato’s words landed hours after Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s top trade negotiator, wrapped up another tense meeting in Washington. He sat down with Scott Bessent, Trump’s Treasury Secretary, and other White House officials.No details were made public, but diplomatic sources say they talked about US car imports, energy, and agriculture deals. The trade surplus with the US is a long-time sore spot, and Trump wants it cut—fast.The Japanese side might consider buying more American gas and farm goods. But that’s not happening without a fight. Kato, who met Bessent personally in the last week of April, is one of the key guys in this whole thing. And he’s clearly had enough.Analysts are calling it what it is: a warning shot. Nicholas Smith, chief Japan strategist at CLSA, said, “This is a street fight. Promising not to use one of your strongest, most brutal weapons would be both naive and reckless. You don’t need to use the weapon—just brandish it.” And that’s exactly what Kato did.It’s not just about Japan either. If China, which also holds a mountain of Treasuries, jumps in with a similar threat, the US bond market is screwed. Between Japan’s stash and China’s, the leverage is real. With Japan leading the charge now, they’ve opened the door to something much bigger.The prime minister of Japan has already called Trump’s trade war a “national crisis.” Kato taking this public shows just how fed up he and his top guys are. Jesper Koll, director at Monex Group, called the move shocking, especially from someone as careful as Kato.“The fact that the usually extremely guarded and diplomatic finance minister spoke up on national TV about what is arguably Japan’s biggest asset in dealing with America confirms the growing confidence of Japan’s elite in their dealings with the US,” Koll said.Negotiations between Akazawa and the Trump team are expected to ramp up through May, with a possible deal on the table by June. But Japan’s now fighting back with sharp elbows. They’re not just asking for “fairness.” They’re saying: Touch us again, and we torch the bond market.Cryptopolitan Academy: Coming Soon – A New Way to Earn Passive Income with DeFi in 2025. Learn MoreSource link
You may also like
Argentina vs Cape Verde: When a Record-Breaking Legend Meets an Unbreakable Underdog
WEEX exclusive pre-match analysis of Argentina vs Cape Verde, exploring Messi-led Argentina’s dominance and Cape Verde’s historic defensive breakout, with a breakdown of volatility, structure, and match dynamics.
How does Gate redo "buying and selling stocks" from the cryptocurrency world to the stock market?
The competition logic of exchanges has changed.
Former ByteDance employee's account: How I started with two Pinduoduo hard drives and made six times the profit with Seagate to achieve financial freedom?
A programmer from a big tech company bought hard drives on Pinduoduo and, following clues, managed to accurately capture the sixfold rising stock Seagate using the "finding daily anomalies + 13F institutional verification" framework, making a wild profit of $400,000 and achieving financial freedom.
Visa and Mastercard join 140 giants to launch a new stablecoin, but the impact on the market landscape may still be limited
As an important milestone event in the stablecoin landscape, OUSD is likely to change the existing stablecoin landscape and significantly increase the adoption rate of stablecoins in the global financial system.
WEEX Launches Depth Chart for Spot Trading
WEEX Spot now supports Depth Chart, helping users visualize buy and sell orders, spot liquidity walls, and understand market depth more clearly before placing trades.
MiCA reshuffle begins, Binance temporarily bids farewell to the EU
What Binance leaves behind is not scattered retail investors, but a whole batch of high-value users who are forced to liquidate and have almost nowhere to go.
Raising interest rates to protect STRC and selling coins to maintain credit, this time the strategy has chosen the two most expensive paths
The rebound in BTC prices can make all problems simple.
Morning Report | Samsung announces a 265.5 trillion won investment plan, focusing on semiconductor and AI computing power data centers; Vitalik publishes an article detailing the entire technology tree behind the confusion protocol (iO) mainline
Overview of Important Market Events on June 29
In the era of AI, what is left of Bitcoin?
AI can generate a fake image, create a fake video, and even forge a person's voice. But it cannot make the entire Bitcoin network acknowledge a non-existent transaction out of thin air.
NeoSoul announced plans to integrate with the OKX Agentic Wallet, promoting AI agents' participation in the on-chain economy
After the integration is complete, the AI entity will be able to manage on-chain assets, pay service fees, and perform related on-chain operations.
Why Is Bitcoin Lagging Stocks in 2026? AI Stocks, ETF Outflows, and the Nasdaq Rally Explained
Stocks are hitting record highs while Bitcoin continues to lag. Discover why AI stocks are attracting institutional capital and what it means for crypto traders.
What you bought on CEX is really not US stocks: Analyzing the 94% liquidation monopoly and the evaporation of equity under a five-layer pipeline
Peeling back its smooth trading interface to examine the underlying legal relationships and settlement processes, you will find that this is far from a simple "RWA asset revolution," but rather a complex game of interests involving spot pricing, rights ownership, and the monopoly of underlying custo...
In such a crowded cross-border payment arena, where is the next stop for the future?
Only by stepping into the mud can one have the chance to touch gold.
Why Is Bitcoin Down in 2026? What We Can Learn From 2022
Why is Bitcoin down in 2026? Bitcoin has just recorded its worst first half since 2022, with back-to-back quarterly losses, record ETF outflows, and extreme fear. Here's what history says, how 2026 differs from the last bear market, and the three signals traders should wat
The large models in the United States are moving towards closure in the name of security
The government successfully inserted itself as an approver between commercial AI models and their users for the first time.
From the white-haired stock god to the billionaire fund mogul, the smart people shorting Nvidia are all getting rich using the same framework
Give up on heavily investing in Nvidia's "nine major bottlenecks"! This article analyzes the underlying logic behind top AI investors making billions: physical infrastructure such as electricity, HBM, and optical interconnects are the true keys to wealth in AI hardware.
Morning Report | CoinEx becomes a key hub for Iran to evade sanctions, involving over $3.8 billion in funds; Kalshi seeks a new round of financing, with a valuation potentially rising to $40 billion
Overview of Important Market Events on June 25
Global Launch: As predictions become the most scarce asset in the AI era, Manadia is defining the next generation of the value internet
The trusted AI prediction ecosystem Manadia, which has secured $7 million in funding from well-known institutions like OKX, will globally launch in June. The core token UMXM has already been listed on multiple mainstream platforms, inviting you to seize the new blue ocean of the trillion-level predi...
Argentina vs Cape Verde: When a Record-Breaking Legend Meets an Unbreakable Underdog
WEEX exclusive pre-match analysis of Argentina vs Cape Verde, exploring Messi-led Argentina’s dominance and Cape Verde’s historic defensive breakout, with a breakdown of volatility, structure, and match dynamics.
How does Gate redo "buying and selling stocks" from the cryptocurrency world to the stock market?
The competition logic of exchanges has changed.
Former ByteDance employee's account: How I started with two Pinduoduo hard drives and made six times the profit with Seagate to achieve financial freedom?
A programmer from a big tech company bought hard drives on Pinduoduo and, following clues, managed to accurately capture the sixfold rising stock Seagate using the "finding daily anomalies + 13F institutional verification" framework, making a wild profit of $400,000 and achieving financial freedom.
Visa and Mastercard join 140 giants to launch a new stablecoin, but the impact on the market landscape may still be limited
As an important milestone event in the stablecoin landscape, OUSD is likely to change the existing stablecoin landscape and significantly increase the adoption rate of stablecoins in the global financial system.
WEEX Launches Depth Chart for Spot Trading
WEEX Spot now supports Depth Chart, helping users visualize buy and sell orders, spot liquidity walls, and understand market depth more clearly before placing trades.
MiCA reshuffle begins, Binance temporarily bids farewell to the EU
What Binance leaves behind is not scattered retail investors, but a whole batch of high-value users who are forced to liquidate and have almost nowhere to go.
Customer Support:@weikecs
Business Cooperation:@weikecs
Quant Trading & MM:bd@weex.com
VIP Program:support@weex.com


