Editor’s Note
This article reports on former President Donald Trump’s announcement of the initial projects under a major Japanese investment pledge. The information is sourced from his social media post. We present it for your awareness as part of ongoing economic and trade developments.
Former US President Donald Trump announced on the 17th the first three projects under Japan’s $550 billion investment plan in the United States. He posted on his social media platform Truth Social, stating, “The massive trade deal with Japan is kicking off.”
The first batch of projects includes a natural gas power plant in Ohio, a crude oil export facility in Texas, and a lab-grown diamond manufacturing facility in Georgia.
According to the White House, the Ohio gas power plant, with a project scale of $33 billion and a generation capacity of 9.2 gigawatts, will be the world’s largest natural gas power plant. It will be operated by SB Energy, a subsidiary of SoftBank Group.
The Texas crude oil export facility has a project scale of $2.1 billion. US Commerce Secretary Ratanic stated in a declaration that it is expected to handle $20-30 billion worth of crude oil annually.
President Trump indicated that the Texas investment includes liquefied natural gas (LNG) related projects, although Secretary Ratanic’s statement did not mention this.
The lab-grown diamond manufacturing plant in Georgia has a project scale of approximately $600 million. Secretary Ratanic stated that it could potentially meet 100% of domestic US demand. The US currently has a high dependence on lab-grown diamonds from China.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi posted on X that these projects “will strengthen Japan-US ties by building supply chains through cooperation in strategically important areas for economic security, such as critical minerals, energy, AI, and data centers.” She added that Japanese companies supplying related equipment and machinery can expect increased sales and business expansion. She indicated plans to coordinate further details for the early implementation of the projects.
Regarding the first batch of projects, Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Ryosuke Akazawa, visited the US last week and held talks with Commerce Secretary Ratanic.
In his post, Trump argued, “The scale of these projects is so large that they would not be possible without the special word: Tariffs.”
