U.S. and Japanese negotiators are still working on trade talks in Washington. But for Japanese automakers, that's not the biggest news of the week. HPR's Bill Dorman has more in today's Asia Minute.

For the past 20 years, those who use cars for transportation have begun to consider another option for their everyday lives: the electric vehicle. Switching from a traditional vehicle to an EV could solve quite a slate of problems.

Honda Motor said on Tuesday that it was scaling back its investment in electric vehicles given slowing demand and would be focusing on capturing growing demand for hybrids with new models. CEO Toshihiro Mibe told a press conference the automaker has lowered its planned investment in electrification and software through the 2030 business year to 7 trillion yen ($48.