In accordance with the U.S.-Japan trade agreement effective January 1st, 2020 tariffs will be reduced incrementally over a twelve-year period.  April 1st, 2021 is the beginning of the third year of the schedule with significantly lower tariffs.  Frozen chicken cuts will carry a rate of 4.0 percent, frozen bone-in legs at 5.4 percent and processed poultry at 1.9 percent.  The reductions are expected to allow U.S. products to be more competitive. 

Japan will only become a significant market for the U.S. if it is capable of shipping products that are in demand.  Japan established joint ventures in China to produce labor-intensive presentations responsible for 16 percent of 2020 imports. Brazil and Thailand are able to ship products specifically developed for the market in Japan and respectively amounting to 39 and 42 percent of imports of chicken products by Japan amounting to 1,005 million metric tons in 2020. There is a world of difference between yakitori chicken and bulk leg quarters. A possible strategy might be to ship product to an intermediate nation with low labor rates to be converted to specifications as required by importers in Japan.

Despite the base rate of 3 percent, now waived for turkey meat, no significant shipments have been made to Japan in recent years.