11 US Congressmen ask Biden Admin to pressure Japan over allowing Sony to buy console exclusivity deals

[Qwark]

Machiavellian said:

Qwark said:

The Japanese government would probably tell Biden to go kick some rocks if he would pressure Japan about this. The Japanese aren't really that into told what to do and on who to apply pressure. Also didn't Xbox also make many deals with third parties during the X360 era. Tales of Vesperia wasn't a X360 exclusive, because it was the platform it sells best on.

But they are not telling them what to do, they are asking them to look into it.  Its just as important for Japanese business to have good relationship in the US as for US business to have good relationships in their country.  So no, they would not just go tell the Biden Admin to go kick rocks.  You forget who trade more between the 2 countries.  Its a lot more complex then that.

If the Biden administration will formally ask the Japanese government to meddle, it wouldn't be to just look into it, it would basically mean to take action against it. Either by forbid deals between PS and companies like Square or to protect the market less from US companies which can buy Japanese gaming companies with less scrutiny. US wants more monopolies after all, it's the Anglo-Saxon way after all to take on massive debts to eventually dominate and control. Sometimes it works (Big tech) sometimes it doesn't (US car industry).

USA imports almost twice as much from Japan as vice versa. Though the US is losing trading ground to China, when it comes to export. Putting on the same thing as US did with EU as a response might push Japan to more trade and a closer relationship with China as Trump definitely pushed EU closer to China, though China is pushing EU away in favour of Russia.

For the US I would say Japan is for many things more important than EU (especially for pressuring China). After all via Japan the US could very quickly react to a Taiwan invasion. So they can't take the same route of higher tarifs or boycotting products as they do/did with Chinese products and products from EU. So the question is how much control can the US have on Japan, keeping its many interests in Japan intact, which is unlike the situation with Canadian lumber and the EU tariff war.