Saturday morning’s Asahi wrote that USTR Chief Agricultural Negotiator Gregg Doud commented on a bilateral trade agreement with Japan at a Senate hearing on Friday. He reportedly said that the issue is one of the Trump administration’s top priorities and that an agreement should be reached without fail. The paper interpreted the remark to mean that United States intends to call on Japan to open its agricultural market ahead of the next round of talks on “free, fair, and reciprocal” trade and the U.S.-Japan summit expected to be held later this month.