Trump said trade deals would come easy. Japan is proving him wrong.

After failing to cut a trade deal with Japan following weeks of talks, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer decided to turn up the pressure. When Japanese officials arrived in Washington in late May, Lutnick and Greer warned them that if the two sides couldn't work out an agreement soon, the conversations might start shifting from easing the tariffs President Trump had recently imposed toward additional punitive measures, according to people familiar with the matter. The Americans said they might demand a cap on the number of vehicles Japan could export to the U.S.—a policy known…