The Japan Times | 18 February 2026
Trump selects investment projects to be funded by Japan
By Francis Tang
U.S. President Donald Trump has chosen three investment projects to be funded by Japan’s $550 billion capital fund, the president and the U.S. Commerce Department announced on Tuesday.
“Japan is now officially, and financially, moving forward with the FIRST set of Investments under its $$550 BILLION Commitment to invest in the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The announcement came days after trade minister Ryosei Akazawa held talks with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington last week, where he said an agreement wasn’t reached and that there were still points requiring further coordination.
It also came a month before Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s planned visit to the White House on March 19.
The announced projects include a natural gas generation facility in Ohio, a deep-water crude oil export facility in the Gulf of Mexico and a synthetic industrial diamond manufacturing plant in Georgia. The three projects are estimated to be worth $36 billion in total, Lutnick said in a statement.
“The scale of these projects are so large, and could not be done without one very special word, TARIFFS,” Trump wrote in his post. “This is a very exciting and HISTORIC time for the United States of America and Japan.”
As part of a trade deal reached on July 22, Japan agreed to commit $550 billion to critical industries and technologies in the United States, in exchange for lower tariffs on Japanese automobiles and other products.
Under the terms of a memorandum of understanding signed in early September, projects are recommended by an investment committee chaired by Lutnick before being approved by Trump.
Japan will provide input on the feasibility of candidate projects through a consultation process before the projects are presented to the president. All investments need to be made before Trump’s term in office ends.
Japanese media had earlier reported three shortlisted projects: a power plant for data centers involving SoftBank Group and GE Vernova, a deep-water port for crude oil exports and a synthetic diamond plant.
The projects announced on Tuesday were largely in line with what was previously reported.
