Before Japan can proceed with trade talks with Washington, authorities must first correct several misunderstandings held by U.S. President Donald Trump, former foreign minister and previous digital transformation minister Taro Kono said Wednesday.

"President Trump could flip according to how the market reacts to it and what he’s quoting, the facts, numbers, are quite wrong. So we need to first correct his misunderstanding to put our proposal on the table,” Kono said in an interview.

He recalled how Trump expressed similar misunderstandings about the U.S.-Japan security alliance and Japan’s auto industry when he visited Washington with then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during Trump’s first term in office. Serving as Japan’s foreign minister at the time, Kono said the incorrect assumptions were corrected, but now need to be rectified again.

"It’s like deja vu,” he said.

Japan and the United States have started formal trade negotiations after Trump slapped a 24% across-the-board tariff on Japanese imports and a 25% levy on cars, steel and aluminum. The 24% tariff is currently on hold as Tokyo and Washington negotiate, though a 10% baseline charge still applies.

A Japanese delegation is expected to hold its second round of trade talks with their U.S. counterparts later this month, while Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato is set to meet U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week.

"We definitely need to finish this negotiation, but we shouldn’t rush in,” Kono said.

Kono said matters related to regional security shouldn’t be discussed as part of the trade talks, nor should the question of how best to manage relationships with China.

"We need to be very careful about economic security issues, and the supply chain involving China,” he said. "How we are going to trade, how we are going to do to China collectively among the West, that is also a separate issue.”

A Japanese delegation is in Beijing this week, where Tetsuo Saito, the chief of the ruling party’s junior coalition partner Komeito, was set to deliver a letter from Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to Chinese President Xi Jinping. The gesture highlights Japan’s desire to balance managing its relationships with China, its largest trading partner, and with the U.S., its sole formal security ally.

Turning to currencies, Kono said that Trump appears to want a weak dollar.

"I think the market will fix the exchange rate accordingly.”