Toyota says it did not explicitly promise Trump new $10 billion investment in US

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By Daniel Leussink and Maki Shiraki

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s Toyota Motor did not explicitly promise a new $10 billion investment in the United States, a senior executive said on Wednesday, a day after President Donald Trump mentioned a potential investment of that size.

Speaking during his visit to Japan on Tuesday evening, Trump said the world’s largest automaker would be looking to invest around $10 billion in the United States.

However, Toyota executive Hiroyuki Ueda told reporters that in talks with the Japanese government and the U.S. embassy ahead of Trump’s visit, no such explicit promise was made about an investment of that size, adding Toyota would continue to invest and create jobs in America.

“During the first Trump administration, I think the figure was roughly around $10 billion, so while we didn’t say the same scale, we did explain that we’ll keep investing and providing employment as before. So, probably because of that context, the figure of about $10 billion came up,” Ueda said on the sidelines of the Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo.

“Therefore, we didn’t specifically say that we’ll invest $10 billion over the next few years.” 

Ueda also said the topic of investment did not come up when Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda briefly spoke to Trump at a U.S. Embassy event on Tuesday evening.

Trump met with Japan’s new prime minister and first female premier, Sanae Takaichi, on Tuesday. He welcomed Takaichi’s pledge to accelerate a military buildup, while also signing deals on trade and rare earths.

(Reporting by Daniel Leussink and Maki Shiraki; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)