Analysts said that American officials might wish to use the talks with Japan to score a small but quick win.

“This seems more about ‘Let’s get some sort of deal and see what we can get out of Japan in a pretty quick turnaround and then move onto other stuff,’” said Tobias Harris, an expert on Japanese politics at Teneo Intelligence in Washington. “Whatever you want to call it, this is something much more limited than what Japan had feared.”

Certainly, deferring auto tariffs gives Japan some immediate breathing room.

Industry analysts had said that if the Trump administration imposed a 20 percent tariff on Japanese auto exports, manufacturers’ costs could go up by $8.6 billion. SMBC Nikko Securities estimated that if automakers passed on such costs to customers, Japan’s car exports would decline by 200,000 units, cutting manufacturers’ profits by about 2.2 percent.

In remarks to the news media in New York on Wednesday evening, Mr. Abe, who recently won a leadership election that could set him up to become the longest-serving prime minister in the country’s history, emphasized that American officials would accept Japan’s previously established parameters for opening up its markets for beef, vegetables and other agricultural products. That means the Trump administration would not get any further concessions from Japan than it has already given in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement originally rejected by Mr. Trump.

But analysts said that Mr. Trump could present any deal that results from the talks with Japan as a new victory in efforts to get other nations to buckle on trade. The president can “play it up and say that this is a deal that Japan would open up their markets,” said Yorizumi Watanabe, a professor of policy management at Keio University in Tokyo.

In a rambling news conference on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, Mr. Trump suggested he had figured out other ways to reduce the United States trade deficit with Japan. He boasted that Japan would buy “massive amounts of military equipment” and was “doubling the amount” of liquid natural gas it would buy from the United States.