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Japan’s prime minister said “every option” was under consideration and South Korea promised an emergency response after Donald Trump stepped up his trade war by unveiling 25 per cent tariffs on car imports to the US.

Shigeru Ishiba’s comments in Japan’s parliament came after Trump’s latest trade salvo, which he said would go into effect on April 2. Washington is expected to apply a range of reciprocal tariffs against US partners and allies on the same day.

Asian carmakers are expected to be among the worst affected. Shares of Japanese automakers tumbled between 2 per cent and 5 per cent on Thursday, while those of South Korea’s largest carmakers Hyundai and its affiliate Kia dropped about 4 per cent.

“We need to think about the best option for Japan’s national interest,” said Ishiba. “We are considering every option in order to reach the most appropriate response.”

His comments came after European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the EU was also assessing its options.

Japan’s top spokesperson Yoshimasa Hayashi described the tariffs, which would hit an industry widely seen as the driving force of the economy, as “extremely regrettable”. He added that the Trump administration’s emerging trade policy could have a major impact on bilateral ties, the global economy and the multilateral trading system.

Ishiba’s February meeting with Trump in Washington had initially been hailed as a success for reasserting the strength of the US-Japan alliance.

But traders in Tokyo said the bluntness of Ishiba’s tone — along with the “every option” language — hinted at rising panic in Japan over the solidity of the relationship.

Japan has in recent weeks lobbied Washington for an exemption from tariffs, highlighting its status as the biggest supplier of foreign direct investment into the US.

The country’s economy and trade minister visited Washington this month, but the efforts have not secured the exemptions Japan had hoped for.

“Japan is the biggest investor into the United States, so we wonder if it makes sense for [the Trump administration] to apply uniform tariffs to all countries. That is a point we’ve been raising and will continue to do so,” said Ishiba.

Japanese carmakers have built significant production facilities in the US but their supply chains are heavily reliant on Canada and Mexico.

Japan is the largest exporter of finished vehicles to the US after Mexico, where Japanese companies are the dominant manufacturers. Japan sent $40bn worth of cars to the US in 2024, representing 28.3 per cent of its overall exports to the US.

Goldman Sachs analysts said the impact on Japanese exports could be “large” because cars and parts account for such a large proportion of exports to the US.

But they said the overall economic impact would be “somewhat limited” as Japan would not lose competitiveness against other car imports, estimating the hit to GDP at 0.1 percentage points.

Masanori Katayama, chair of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, a lobby group, had previously warned that “significant production adjustment” would be required if US tariffs were introduced against vehicle imports from Japan, Mexico and Canada.

But Julie Boote, an analyst at Pelham Smithers, said tariff pressure could “ironically” force Japan’s fragmented carmaking industry to consolidate as smaller groups would need support.

South Korea’s industry minister Ahn Duk-geun said Korean carmakers would experience “considerable difficulties” due to the tariffs and promised to announce emergency measures next month, following a meeting on Thursday with industry executives.

Hyundai, whose $7.6bn hybrid and electric vehicle factory in Georgia began operations on Thursday, has also unveiled plans to expand US production capacity in anticipation of the Trump tariffs.

The carmaker on Tuesday announced $21bn of investment in the US, including a $5.8bn steel plant in Louisiana, as well as a target of producing 1.2mn vehicles annually in the country, up from 700,000 currently.

Federal immigration authorities arrested a Tufts University doctoral student from Turkey on Tuesday night, the latest in a string of arrests targeting international students for their Palestinian advocacy.

Rumeysa Ozturk, a PhD student in the graduate school of arts and sciences at the Massachusetts university, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers outside her off-campus apartment on her way to an Iftar dinner with friends, according to her attorney and activists.

In an email to the Tufts community, university president Sunil Kumar said the school was told that federal authorities terminated her visa status, “and we seek to confirm whether that information is true.”

The Independent has requested comment from ICE.

Ozturk, who is in the United States on a non-immigrant F-1 visa for international students, was meeting with friends to break her Ramadan fast when she was detained near her home in Somerville, attorney Mahsa Khanbabai said in a statement to The Independent.

“We are unaware of her whereabouts and have not been able to contact her,” she said.

Surveillance footage of the arrest shows plainclothes agents approaching her from the street. One officer, whose head is covered by sweatshirt hood, appears to approach her without identifying himself and then grabs her arm. Another officer approaches and takes her phone while she is placed in handcuffs. Three officers cover their faces with neck gaiters.

Tufts did not have any prior knowledge of the arrest “and did not share any information with federal authorities prior to the event,” Kumar wrote.

Kumar issued a reminder that the university has a protocol for how to respond to federal agents making “unannounced visits” on or off campus.

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Ozturk’s attorney has filed a petition of habeas corpus challenging her arrest and detention. Massachusetts District Judge Indira Talwani is giving federal officials until Friday to respond to the complaint, and Ozturk cannot be moved outside the state without at least 48 hours of advance notice to the court, according to Talwani’s order.

Ozturk is a student at the university’s doctoral program for Child Study and Human Development, and graduated with a master’s degree from the Teachers College at Columbia University, according to her LinkedIn.

“I am passionate about researching children’s and adolescents’ digital media and technologies for caring, kind, and compassionate media environments,” she writes. “As an interdisciplinary media researcher and developmental scientist in training, I research children’s and adolescents’ positive development in a media-embedded, globalized, and connected world.”

Last year, in response to Israel’s ongoing devastation of Gaza, Ozturk co-authored an op-ed in The Tufts Daily newspaper calling on Kumar to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and for the university to divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.

Ozturk is among dozens of students and professors identified by Canary Mission, a pro-Israel campaign that maintains a database intended to blacklist and intimidate activists the group accuses of promoting “hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews.”

“Efforts to deport students based on their speech or protected activism undermine America’s commitment to free expression,” Tyler Coward, lead counsel for government affairs for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told The Independent. “If ICE detained Ozturk based on her op-ed or activism, it’s a worrying escalation in an already fraught environment for college students here on student visas.”

Her arrest follows similar actions from federal authorities targeting student activists and students who have merely spoken in support of Palestine, none of whom have been accused of committing any crime. Donald Trump’s administration has zeroed in on campus activism at prestigious universities, where Israel’s war in Gaza has provoked a wave of demonstrations and protest encampments demanding an end to U.S. support for Israel’s devastation.

Students have been accused of supporting terrorism and violating the president’s executive orders directing federal agencies investigate and potentially remove non-citizens who “bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles” and “advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security.”

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On Tuesday, university professors and academic organizations from across the country filed a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of violating the First Amendment through a “climate of fear and repression” on college campuses.

“Out of fear that they might be arrested and deported for lawful expression and association, some noncitizen students and faculty have stopped attending public protests or resigned from campus groups that engage in political advocacy,” according to the lawsuit.

“Others have declined opportunities to publish commentary and scholarship, stopped contributing to classroom discussions, or deleted past work from online databases and websites,” attorneys wrote. “Many now hesitate to address political issues on social media, or even in private texts. The [policy], in other words, is accomplishing its purpose: it is terrorizing students and faculty for their exercise of First Amendment rights in the past, intimidating them from exercising those rights now, and silencing political viewpoints that the government disfavor.”

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Manhattan blocked the Trump administration from deporting Yunseo Chung, a Columbia University student and lawful permanent resident who was the victim of the government’s “shocking overreach,” vilifying her political views and constitutionally protected right to protest, according to her attorneys.

Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident and prominent student activist accused of organizing “pro-Hamas” attacks on campus, is currently battling his removal from the United States after his shocking arrest in front of his wife, a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant, earlier this month. He is currently detained in Louisiana as his case moves jurisdictions to a federal court in New Jersey.