Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday visited the site of a battery plant being constructed by Toyota Motor Corp. in North Carolina, aiming to pitch his country's contributions to job creation and investment in the United States.

Kishida, who has become the first Japanese prime minister to visit the United States as a state guest in nine years, agreed at a summit with President Joe Biden on Wednesday that mutual investment by their two nations is important to spur global economic growth.

The total investment for the plant by Toyota, Japan's largest automaker by volume, has climbed to $13.9 billion, with the factory expected to employ more than 5,000 people.

Kishida is eager to showcase Toyota's involvement in the world's biggest economy, given the possibility that Donald Trump, who has criticized the U.S. trade deficit with Japan, could be re-elected president in November, political experts said.

Japanese automakers have been ramping up their production capacity in the United States so that their electric vehicles are eligible for tax breaks offered under the Biden administration, which requires EVs to be built in North America.

==Kyodo

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