The government will ask the European Union to cut tariffs on imports from Japan to offset increases that will be implemented by 10 European countries when they join the group in May.
Government sources said Wednesday that Japan and the EU will launch negotiations over the Japanese request in Brussels on March 3.
When 10 central and eastern European countries, including Poland and Hungary, join the EU, they will adopt the group's common tariffs. Tariffs in individual countries will be raised if they are lower than the common tariffs.
For example, Poland, which currently has no custom duties on video cameras, and the Czech Republic, which charges 2.3 percent, will raise their tariff rates to 14 percent.
Tariff increases that will affect exports from Japan are expected to mount to 3 billion yen.
Japan plans to make the request in cooperation with other countries that also will be affected by the increases, such as the United States, South Korea and China.
When Austria, Sweden and Finland joined the EU in 1995, customer duties on exports to those countries were raised. For exports of semiconductors and other products from Japan, the EU lowered tariffs by $60 million a year.
The World Trade Organization allows countries to demand a cut in tariffs if they are raised for reasons such as an importing nation's entry into an economic union.