(Corrects paragraph 12 to fix link)
By Trevor Hunnicutt and David Dolan
TOKYO (Reuters) -Long associated with American ruggedness, burly pickup trucks such as Ford’s top-selling F-150 have now become a symbol of international trade talks, showing how far countries such as Japan will go to win over U.S. President Donald Trump.
When Trump met Japan’s new prime minister and first female premier, Sanae Takaichi, in Tokyo on Tuesday, an F-150 was parked prominently outside the Akasaka Palace venue.
Big U.S. pickup trucks are a rare sight in the Japanese capital, where the streets are narrow and turns can be painfully tight.
But the placement of the F-150, not even typically available for sale in Japan, sent a clear message about Tokyo’s willingness to buy more cars from its ally, an issue that has been a sore point for Trump for decades.
Last week Reuters reported that Takaichi’s government was working on a package to buy F-150 trucks, an idea originally floated by Trump, as well as soybeans and gas.
“Well, that’s great. She has good taste,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Saturday, when asked about the report. “That’s a hot truck.”
In August, Trump said Japan was ready to purchase the “very beautiful” F-150. He often complains about what he sees as a refusal to accept U.S. cars while Japanese and European companies sell millions of autos each year in the United States.
In recent trade deals, both markets agreed to drop or ease safety tests on American vehicle imports.
But the reluctance to buy American has little to do with trade barriers. Both in Tokyo and London, many drivers see Detroit cars as simply too big and too hungry for petrol.
It was not clear how many F-150s Japan planned to buy.
Japanese government sources have told Reuters the trucks would probably end up being used as snow plows, given their size.
A third of the 3.7 million new cars sold in Japan last year were mini or “kei” cars, tiny vehicles that are not produced by American automakers.
Foreign cars accounted for 6% of new car sales overall, with European brands among some of the top sellers, industry data showed.
Ford pulled out of Japan almost a decade ago.
Separately Trump said that Japanese carmaker Toyota would also open auto plants in the United States to the tune of $10 billion.
A Toyota spokesperson was not immediately available to comment on Trump’s remarks.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and David Dolan; Additional reporting by Maki Shiraki; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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