Tokyo, Nov. 5 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government intends to honor its pledge to provide investments and loans worth up to 550 billion dollars to the United States following the U.S. midterm elections.

Tokyo made the commitment last year in exchange for lower U.S. tariffs on imports from Japan. Even as Democrats took control of the U.S. Congress in Tuesday's elections, U.S. President Donald Trump will be able to raise tariffs using executive orders.

The Japanese government aims to make the investment and loan pledge a bargaining chip for minimizing the impact of Trump's unforeseeable moves, as well as a springboard for deepening Japan-U.S. economic security cooperation and promoting Japanese firms' overseas operations.

The United States last year agreed to limit its auto and reciprocal tariffs on Japan to up to 15 pct. Japanese industry minister Ryosei Akazawa has repeatedly said the deal helped Japan to slash U.S. tariffs by over 2 trillion yen from the previously expected 5 trillion yen every year.

The Japanese government hopes to evade risks of additional tariffs by pushing ahead with the investments and loans.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]