Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2665 actions· ✨ 90 recent

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget, which the Global Trade Alert database logs as including a "Multi-modal Foundation Model Development Project with a Focus on AI Robots and Physical AI" financial-grant line administered by METI, effective with the fiscal year on 1 April 2026. NEDO -- METI's implementing R&D agency -- operationalised this line through a commissioned-project (100%-funded) solicitation opened 24 March 2026 and closed 22 April 2026, capping funding at up to JPY 383.4 billion (~USD 2.5bn) per adopted proposal for FY2026, with the programme running FY2026 through FY2030 (initial contract period FY2026-FY2027, annual stage-gate reviews thereafter). The goal is a domestically developed multimodal ("VLM/VLA") foundation model that keeps Japanese factory-floor and robotics data onshore while underpinning "physical AI" -- AI systems embedded in robots and industrial equipment -- to address labour shortages and lift manufacturing productivity. NEDO's call for proposals subsequently selected Noetra Inc. and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST/産総研) as awardees.

Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget on 26 December 2025, under which METI's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) funds a new financial-grant line, the "Decarbonized Power Source Regional Contribution Investment Promotion Project" (脱炭素電源地域貢献型 投資促進事業), for the fiscal year running 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. The programme subsidizes large-scale capital investment by electricity consumers -- prioritising data centres and industrial facilities -- that agree to site near decarbonized power sources (nuclear, renewables) and contribute economically to the host municipality, as one of four designated tracks under Japan's GX Strategy Area system. ANRE opened its solicitation for the executing body that will administer FY2026 disbursements via a public offer published 5 February 2026.

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved a FY2025 (Reiwa 7) supplementary budget line -- the "Renewable Energy Expansion: Grid- Connected Storage Battery and Other Power Storage System Introduction Support Project" -- budgeted at JPY 8.0 billion (rising to JPY 61.6 billion including multi-year budgetary commitment authority, kokko-saimu futan koi). Global Trade Alert logs this as one of 23 METI programmes under the FY2026 budget cycle supporting Japan's "green transformation" of the industrial sector, effective with the start of fiscal year 2026 on 1 April 2026. The programme subsidises private- sector installation of grid-connected batteries, batteries co-located with renewable generation, demand-side batteries, and long-duration energy storage (LDES) systems, aiming to secure decarbonised balancing capacity as renewable penetration rises and to build resilience against energy-price volatility. METI's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy opened the call for the executing body (shikko dantai) that will run the subsidy's application, screening and disbursement process on 24 December 2025, with submissions due 22 January 2026.

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget, which creates a new JPY 3.0 billion (~USD 20m) financial-grant line, the "Business Commercialisation Promotion Project for Combinate Regeneration under the GX Strategic Regional System" (GX戦略地域制度におけるコンビナート 等再生に向けた事業化促進事業), administered by METI. The single-year (FY2026 only) grant funds feasibility work -- project-cost and profitability evaluation, investment-decision support for new operators, and off-taker matching -- for redeveloping idle or underused industrial-complex ("combinate") sites into new GX-aligned industrial clusters. It is one of four categories under METI's GX Strategic Regional System, alongside data-centre aggregation, decarbonized-power utilisation, and decarbonized- power regional-contribution types (the last already filed separately in this register). The programme takes effect with Japan's fiscal year on 1 April 2026.

Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget on 26 December 2025, under which METI's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) renewed the "Housing and Buildings Integrated Demand-Supply Energy Conservation Investment Promotion Project" (住宅・建築物需給一体型等省エネ ルギー投資促進事業費) for the fiscal year running 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. The programme is a financial-grant subsidy, open to all firms, that funds net-zero-energy building (ZEB) and net-zero-energy house (ZEH) demonstration and retrofit investment as part of Japan's broader green transformation (GX) industrial-policy stack. ANRE opened its solicitation for the executing body that will administer FY2026 disbursements via a public offer published 2 February 2026.

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget, which the Global Trade Alert database logs as including a "Leading Technology Development and Demonstration Project for Hydrogen Society Promotion" financial-grant line administered by METI, effective with the fiscal year on 1 April 2026. NEDO -- METI's implementing R&D agency -- operationalises this budget line through competitive solicitations for hydrogen-supply-chain technology development and demonstration; the FY2026 tranche includes the "Advanced Technology Development and Demonstration Project for Hydrogen Society Model Construction" (水素社会モデル構築高度化技術開発・ 実証事業, project code P26004), soliciting proposals from 19 March to 22 April 2026 for regional hydrogen-supply-chain business models (survey phase up to 2 years; technology development/demonstration phase up to 5 years). The predecessor NEDO hydrogen-technology- development project line (FY2014-2025) was budgeted at roughly JPY 8.1 billion in its final year (FY2025); the FY2026-specific grant total was not disclosed in the sources reviewed.

Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget on 26 December 2025, funding METI/ANRE's "Hydropower Energy Introduction Promotion Project" (水力発電導入促進支援事業費補助金) -- one of the programmes Global Trade Alert logs under the FY2026 METI budget cycle, which it puts at a JPY 2.8 billion allocation. ANRE opened a public offer on 26 January 2026 (closed 16 February 2026) for the executing body that would administer indirect subsidies to private-sector and municipal operators for FY2026-27; the New Energy Foundation (一般財団 法人新エネルギー財団) was selected on 20 February 2026. The programme supports two tracks: subsidised replacement/upgrade of ageing existing hydropower facilities to raise output and efficiency, and feasibility studies to expand new entrants into small and mid-scale hydropower.

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) initial budget, which allocates a new JPY 415 billion (~USD 2.7bn) line to the "Low-Carbon Hydrogen Hub Development Support Project" (低炭素水素 等拠点整備支援事業), administered by METI's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) through JOGMEC under the Hydrogen Society Promotion Act framework enacted in 2024. The programme subsidises Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) and construction costs for shared transport and storage infrastructure -- tanks, pipelines and receiving-terminal equipment -- built jointly by multiple businesses to move low-carbon hydrogen and its derivatives (ammonia, e-methane, synthetic fuels) from import/production points to industrial users. It sits alongside, but is administratively distinct from, JOGMEC's separately-run "price-gap" (kakakusa) 15-year CfD offtake support for hydrogen suppliers. The budget takes effect with Japan's fiscal year on 1 April 2026, subject to ordinary Diet passage in early 2026.

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget, which Global Trade Alert logs as including a "Next-Generation Aircraft Development Support" financial-grant programme administered by METI, effective with the fiscal year on 1 April 2026 and running through 31 March 2027. The line item corresponds to METI's "Next-Generation Aircraft Development Support Project" (jiki kokuki kaihatsu-to shien jigyo), funded through the Decarbonisation Growth-type Economic Structure Transition Promotion Subsidy (GX Transition Bond proceeds) and disbursed via a designated implementing body to aerospace-supply-chain firms. The FY2026 allocation is JPY 150 billion, up from JPY 81 billion in FY2025 -- an 85% increase -- aimed at strengthening Japan's aircraft-parts and materials supply chain (composites, advanced materials, engine and airframe components) and its international-competitiveness and economic-security positioning in next-generation aircraft programmes.

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget, which allocates JPY 122.0 billion (~USD 800m) to the "Next-Generation Innovative Reactor Technology Development and Industrial Base Strengthening Support Project" (次世代革新炉の技術開発・産業基盤強化支援事業), up from JPY 88.9 billion in the FY2025 initial budget plus a JPY 6.0 billion FY2025 supplementary allocation. The programme, administered by ANRE under METI's GX (Green Transformation) Promotion budget, funds technology development and supply-chain build-out for Japan's "innovative light-water reactors" (revised BWR/PWR designs with enhanced passive safety) and small modular reactors under the government's GX2040 Vision. The budget takes effect with Japan's fiscal year on 1 April 2026, subject to ordinary Diet passage in early 2026.

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget, which allocates JPY 150 billion (~USD 1bn) to the "Investment Project for Mass Production of Next-Generation Semiconductors" -- a state equity-investment line administered by the Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA) that funds Rapidus Corporation's 2nm-class logic fab in Chitose, Hokkaido. The FY2026 allocation is 50% larger than the JPY 100 billion IPA equity tranche budgeted for FY2025, taking cumulative government equity in Rapidus to roughly JPY 250 billion. The line sits inside METI's wider AI/semiconductor budget of JPY 1.239 trillion for FY2026 (up roughly 4x year-on-year) under the "AI/Semiconductor Industry Base Strengthening Frame," part of the government's pledge of over JPY 10 trillion in public support for AI and chips through FY2030. The budget takes effect with Japan's fiscal year on 1 April 2026, subject to ordinary Diet passage in early 2026.

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget, which the Global Trade Alert database logs as including a "Capital Investment in Oil and Natural Gas Field Exploration and Asset Acquisition Projects" financial-grant/equity line administered by METI, effective with the fiscal year on 1 April 2026. This continues the government's long-standing equity-investment scheme -- run through JOGMEC (the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security) -- that co-funds Japanese companies' upstream oil and gas exploration, development, and M&A/asset-acquisition activity abroad. The FY2026 initial-budget allocation for this specific line is JPY 42.7 billion, down from JPY 56.3 billion in FY2025, though a JPY 19.7 billion supplementary appropriation lifts total FY2026 availability to roughly JPY 62.4 billion -- a modest net increase over FY2025 once the supplementary tranche is included.

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) national budget, which the Global Trade Alert database logs as including a "Project to Promote the Strengthening of Autonomous Resource Circulation Systems" financial-grant line administered by METI, effective with the fiscal year on 1 April 2026. The line is the continuation of METI's "Decarbonisation Growth-Type Economic Structure Transition Promotion Subsidy (Autonomous Resource Circulation System Strengthening Promotion Project)" (脱炭素成長型経済 構造移行推進対策費補助金（自律型資源循環システム強靱化促進事業）), which funds private-sector investment in recycled-material manufacturing and recovery equipment for rare metals/rare earths, automotive and small-electronics lithium-ion batteries, plastics, and textiles. Japanese budget-press reporting puts the FY2026 allocation at JPY 7.3 billion (73億円), up from JPY 3.0 billion (30億円) in FY2025 -- roughly a 2.4x year-on-year increase. METI opened the call for the executing body (執行団体) on 18 February 2026, with the General Incorporated Association for Low-Carbon Investment Promotion (GIO) again acting as the designated administrator, as it did for the FY2025 round.

On 21 November 2025, METI Minister Yoji Akazawa designated Rapidus Corporation as the official next-generation semiconductor manufacturer under Japan's Act on Facilitation of Information Processing (情報処理の促進に関する法律, as amended by the Cabinet-approved partial-amendment bill of 7 February 2025), following a public solicitation run 3 September – 2 October 2025. The designation makes Rapidus eligible for a multi-year METI funding envelope reported at roughly JPY 1tn (~USD 6.4bn), with an initial JPY 100bn equity investment by the Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA) planned for FY2025; the funds support Rapidus' Hokkaido (Chitose) IIM-1 fab targeting 2nm GAA mass production from April 2027 and successor 1.4nm / 1nm nodes. The action is the first standalone Rapidus entry in the IPTM register and operationalises the supply-chain pillar of the 2022 Economic Security Promotion Act for advanced logic.

On 27 October 2025, during the Trump-Takaichi Tokyo summit, the United States and Japan announced the "Framework for Securing the Supply of Critical Minerals and Rare Earths through Mining and Processing", signed by President Donald J. Trump and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on 28 October 2025. The non-binding framework establishes a US-Japan Critical Minerals Supply Security Rapid Response Group co-led by the US Secretary of Energy and the Japanese METI Minister; commits both governments to provide financial support to selected mining and processing projects within six months via grants, guarantees, loans, equity, offtake arrangements, and insurance — mobilising DFC + EXIM (US side) with JOGMEC + JBIC (Japan side); develops a "mutually complementary stockpiling arrangement" leveraging existing national systems; and schedules a Mining, Minerals and Metals Investment Ministerial within 180 days. The framework was subsequently operationalised through the 19 March 2026 "United States-Japan Action Plan for Critical Minerals Supply Chain Resilience" jointly issued by USTR and METI.

President Trump signed Proclamation 10984 "Adjusting Imports of Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles, Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicle Parts, and Buses Into the United States" on 17 October 2025, invoking Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to impose a 25% ad valorem tariff on imports of Class 3 to Class 8 medium- and heavy-duty trucks (large pick-up trucks, moving trucks, cargo trucks, dump trucks, tractors) and on key MHDV parts, and a 10% ad valorem tariff on buses and other vehicles classified in HTSUS heading 8702. Duties take effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT on 1 November 2025 (Federal Register doc 2025-19639, 90 FR 48451, published 22 October 2025). USMCA-qualifying MHDVs are tariffed only on the value of non-U.S. content; the proclamation also establishes an offset programme for MHDV parts equal to 3.75% of the aggregate value of all MHDVs assembled in the United States from 2025 through 2030, mirroring the Proclamation 10925 light-vehicle offset architecture.

METI certified a Supply Security Plan (供給確保計画) filed by Nitto Boseki Co., Ltd. under Japan's Economic Security Promotion Act, designating low-thermal-expansion glass cloth for cutting-edge logic IC packaging substrates as a "specified critical good" material input. The certification (plan no. 2025-semicon-3-1, approved 7 August 2025) qualifies Nitto Boseki for a grant of up to JPY 2.4 billion (~USD 16 million) toward a JPY 7.2 billion new production line at its Fukushima No. 2 plant, targeting a roughly 200% increase in domestic capacity for this glass-cloth grade with supply starting July 2027 and a committed 10-year production run.

METI certified a Supply Security Plan (供給確保計画) filed by DIC Corporation under Japan's Economic Security Promotion Act, designating epoxy resin used in semiconductor packaging/encapsulation as a "specified critical good" material input. The certification (plan no. 2025-semicon-2-1, approved 31 July 2025) qualifies DIC for a grant of up to JPY 3 billion (~USD 20.1 million) toward a new epoxy-resin plant at its Chiba (Ichihara) factory, targeting roughly a 59% increase in domestic production capacity for semiconductor-grade epoxy resin, with supply starting July 2029.

METI certified a Supply Security Plan (供給確保計画) filed by JX Metals (JX Nippon Mining & Metals Corporation, now JX Advanced Metals) under Japan's Economic Security Promotion Act, designating copper-based sputtering targets used in semiconductor wiring as a "specified critical good." The certification (plan no. 2025-semicon-1-1, approved 18 July 2025) is the first in the 2025 semiconductor tranche and qualifies JX Metals for a grant of up to JPY 2.2 billion (~USD 14.8 million) toward roughly JPY 6.6 billion of capex expanding sputtering-target production capacity at its Hitachinaka (Ibaraki Prefecture) plant.

Japan's first standalone AI statute (Law No. 53) was promulgated 4 June 2025 and became fully effective 1 September 2025, when chapters establishing the Artificial Intelligence Strategic Headquarters — chaired by the Prime Minister with all Cabinet ministers as members — entered into force. The Act adopts an innovation-first, non-punitive framework: it imposes no monetary penalties and relies on cooperative and reputational compliance mechanisms rather than mandatory requirements. An AI Basic Plan, adopted by Cabinet decision on 23 December 2025, translates the statutory mandate into cross-ministry R&D and deployment targets.

Japan's government, acting through the "Comprehensive Countermeasures Headquarters for US Tariff Measures" (established after the April 2025 Trump reciprocal-tariff announcement), decided on 27 May 2025 to draw JPY 388.1 billion from FY2025 budget reserves for tariff-cushioning relief. JPY 288.1 billion reactivates the electricity and city-gas bill subsidy (JPY 2/kWh electricity, JPY 8/m3 city gas) for July-September 2025 usage, cutting an average household's summer utility bill by roughly JPY 3,000. The remaining JPY 100 billion funds increased subsidies to local governments supporting businesses' electricity and LPG costs and expanded funding support to SMEs via government-backed lenders. METI issued special retail-tariff authorizations to electric and city-gas utilities on 25 June 2025 to implement the July-September discount.

Japan's National Diet passed a partial amendment to the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Act (PMD Act / 薬機法) on May 14, 2025, promulgated as Law No. 37 of 2025 on May 21. The amendment requires every Marketing Authorization Holder (MAH) to designate a Supply System Manager responsible for reporting supply disruptions to MHLW, and grants MHLW authority to order replacement of key quality personnel when systemic deficiencies are found. It also reforms GMP oversight to a risk-based inspection model and expands the conditional-approval pathway for rare disease and paediatric drugs. Enforcement is staggered across three tranches: November 2025, May 2026, and final full implementation by May 2027.

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) overhauled the catch-all export-control framework under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act (FEFTA) — the first comprehensive review of Japan's catch-all controls in 12 years (since 2013). Cabinet decisions were taken on 25 March 2025 and 4 April 2025 with METI's consolidated announcement on 9 April 2025; the amended Cabinet Order entered into force on 9 October 2025. The reform (i) splits catch-all-controlled items into "core items" (high dual-use risk, including certain semiconductors and machine tools) and a general catch-all tier, (ii) adds a new end-user requirement alongside the existing end-use requirement and extends both from UN-arms-embargo countries only to "general countries" (everywhere outside Group A), materially expanding the perimeter of items requiring METI export licences for general-country end-users including China, and (iii) introduces an "informed" condition for exports to Group A countries — once METI notifies an exporter of a defined risk pattern, a Group A export becomes licence-required, addressing transit-export-circumvention to Russia. Structurally distinct from the 23-category equipment-specific 2023 amendment (2023-03-31-japan-meti-semi-equipment-export-controls); this is the underlying horizontal catch-all reform and brings Japan's framework closer to US BIS EAR catch-all controls.

President Trump signed Executive Order 14257 on 2 April 2025 declaring a national emergency over US trade deficits and imposing a baseline 10% ad-valorem tariff on imports from nearly all trading partners effective 5 April, with higher country-specific "reciprocal" rates effective 9 April. The rate schedule was constructed from a formula tied to bilateral goods-trade deficits and ranged from 10% (UK, Singapore, Brazil, Australia, others) through 20% (EU), 24% (Japan), 25% (Korea), 32% (Taiwan, Indonesia, Switzerland), 34% (China, later raised to 84% then 125% during the April escalation), 46% (Vietnam), 49% (Cambodia). Multiple subsequent EOs paused the country-specific rates for 90 days for non-China destinations on 9 April while keeping the 10% baseline, pending bilateral negotiations.

President Trump signed Proclamation 10908 "Adjusting Imports of Automobiles and Automobile Parts Into the United States" on 26 March 2025, invoking Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to impose a 25% ad valorem tariff on imports of finished passenger vehicles and light trucks effective 12:01 a.m. EDT on 3 April 2025, with the duty extended to key automobile parts (engines and engine parts, transmissions and powertrain components, electrical components) effective 12:01 a.m. EDT on 3 May 2025. USMCA-origin automobiles receive an interim deduction equal to the value of US-origin content; USMCA-origin parts that satisfy the agreement's rules of origin are temporarily exempt from the parts duty pending a Commerce-administered process. The proclamation is the first Section 232 instrument applied to finished automobiles in US history and the largest-by-trade-volume Section 232 measure of the second Trump administration, covering roughly USD 460 billion of annual auto and auto-parts imports.

President Trump signed two Presidential Proclamations on 11 February 2025 reinstating a universal 25% ad-valorem tariff on all steel-mill products and raising the aluminum tariff from 10% to 25% on all imports into the United States, effective 12 March 2025. The proclamations revoked every bilateral exclusion and quota arrangement negotiated by the Biden administration with the EU, UK, Japan, Korea, Australia, and others under the 2021-2022 "alternative measures" frameworks, returning all trading partners to the baseline Section 232 rate without product-level or country-level carve-outs.