Japan and the United States are preparing a third tranche of projects under their $550 billion investment commitment, with artificial intelligence and semiconductor manufacturing set to receive substantially greater emphasis. Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, said projects announced in the first two tranches total six and are concentrated mainly in energy, including gas-fired power plants and crude oil export infrastructure. Earlier packages included $36 billion for oil, gas and critical minerals and $73 billion for nuclear and natural gas projects. Akazawa met U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on the 3rd and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on the 4th in Washington. He said Japan and the United States reconfirmed that any additional tariffs would not exceed their existing agreement, leaving reciprocal tariffs on Japan capped at 15%. Their discussions also covered Chinese export controls on critical minerals. Project selection is underway, but due diligence and structuring mean the third tranche will take considerable time to finalize.