Trump Unveils Japan’s First Wave Of Mega US Investments: Oil, Gas, Minerals From Ohio To The Gulf

Details of the much anticipated US-Japan trade mega deal have finally been revealed. First, Trump previewed in a Truth Social post on Tuesday: “Our MASSIVE Trade Deal with Japan has just launched!” He then boasted that “The scale of these projects are so large, and could not be done without one very special word, TARIFFS.”

The total $550 billion commitment features Japanese plans to invest up to $36 billion in US oil, gas and critical mineral projects. On this, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi affirmed in a fresh statement: “We believe this initiative is fully aligned with its core objectives: promoting mutual benefits between Japan and the United States, ensuring economic security, and fostering economic growth,” she wrote.

This is to include a synthetic industrial diamond manufacturing facility located in the US state of Georgia. According to a newly published fact sheet to the US Commerce website, diamond grit, dust, and powder rank among the most essential inputs in American industrial manufacturing.

Commerce further explains that diamonds’ extreme hardness and superior wear resistance make them indispensable across a range of high-precision and heavy-duty applications, directly tying them to both economic strength and national security. Crucially, the materials play a central role in semiconductor fabrication, automotive production, and oil and gas exploration, where cutting, grinding, drilling, and polishing performance are mission-critical. 

But the most significant investment is a natural gas facility in Ohio. At an expected cost of $33 Billion and generation capacity of 9.2 GW, it is already being hailed as the among the largest natural gas generation projects in the world.

Trump has described it as “the largest in History” and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has listed SoftBank Group as the company overseeing the project. Japanese companies Toshiba Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. have also expressed interest in participating in the gas project, per Tokyo officials. 

If the facility reaches full output, it would generate power comparable to nine nuclear reactors - roughly equal to the electricity demand of about 7.4 million homes served by the nation’s largest grid, according to Bloomberg, to be operated by PJM Interconnection LLC.

The second major initiative involves a deep water crude export terminal in the Gulf of America (previously Gulf of Mexico), according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The $2.1 billion Texas GulfLink project, to be operated by Sentinel Midstream, is projected to facilitate up to $30 billion in annual US crude exports at full capacity, the US fact sheet indicates.

The full Trump post…

President Trump had first announced in mid-July that he reached a “massive” trade deal with Tokyo that will set tariffs on Japanese imports at 15%. This weeks marks the first time that specific large projects have been confirmed as central to the deal.

Meanwhile, Rabobank comments that the rollout of these initial three projects ”is much more significant than it looks: it’s proof of concept that the US can tell trade and security partners where to place their capital back into the US, rather than them just pushing it into US stocks or bonds. Some may knock this in the same way they do US non-FTA trade deals – but they are still paying those tariffs, so will likely invest as asked.”

China has been watching this unfold closely, given this for sure means deeper and deeper US military commitments to Japan – as has been a growing trend – at a moment Tokyo has been less ‘neutral’ regarding contested Taiwan’s status and what it might be willing to do to defend the self-ruled island.