Investing in Security and Success: Analysis of the US-Japan $550 Billion Strategic Investment Fund
The centerpiece of the recent trade agreement between the United States and Japan was Japan’s promise to invest $550 billion in a new fund that would help “rebuild and expand core American industries.” But the initial terms of the deal did not specify how Japan would finance the investment, who would administer the funds, or how the profit retention mechanism (initially agreed to be 90 percent to the US and 10 percent to Japan) would operate in practice.
On September 4, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Minister Ryosei Akazawa signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that answers many of those questions. This MOU appears to lay out a powerful investment framework to accelerate both countries’ industrial and security…
