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Re: [EastAsia] Japan TPP debate UPDATE SUMMARY

Released on 2012-10-16 17:00 GMT

Email-ID 4981216
Date 2011-09-30 04:43:41
Not sure if this is meant to be an analysis or just something for internal
use. If it's the former you should explain what the TPP is because the way
this reads the reader has no idea what it is. Also there is a big leap
from discussing Japan's econ woes to talking about why Obama needs a
foreign policy win in Japan. Not really sure settling the military base
issue in Japan would even register for most voters back in the States, if
that's the angle your using for his need for a FP win. If it's just
something you're arguing Obama needs in general, it still isn't likely to
give him much traction.

On 9/30/11 7:37 AM, Jose Mora wrote:

Link: themeData


After the Cold War Japan was forced by the US to reform some of the
protectionist policies that it had relied on until then, and went on a
period of depression [what definition of depression are you using here?
Stagnation is probably a better W/C] of which it hasn't been able to
recover. Outdated economic policies have kept parts of the Japanese
economy uncompetitive, particularly agriculture, which has caused food
costs to rise, making the Japanese consumer less well off. High costs
for housing [combined with declining property values for those who
already own] and food [might just say cost of living because
transportation and energy are expensive as well] have made it harder for
Japanese couples to have children, lowering the rate of reproduction to
an unsustainable level. This has lead to the graying of Japanese society
which, coupled to a sustained depression [again, I wouldn't use
depression since Japan does sometimes experience growth, however feable]
, has lead to a significant tendency to inwardness. This has shown
itself in several ways: political gridlock, bureaucratic ossification
and waste, low growth and a significant drop of young people attending
foreign universities, going abroad or having an interest in the outside
world [how do we prove young Japanese aren't interested in the outside
world? Have you seen how popular K-Pop is over here?] .

Meanwhile, due to its geographical position and economic strategy (or
lack thereof?), Japan has been left out of regional and bilateral FTAs,
a situation that makes Japanese manufacturing industry less competitive,
driving out foreign investment and diminishing exports and employment.

Japan's economic maladies and stagnation finally lead the electorate in
2009 to oust the long ruling LDP (architects of Japan's mercantilist
economic structure and expert practitioners of crony-capitalism) in
favor of the DPJ, a party founded by disaffected ex LDP members
committed to an agenda of political, economic and ultimately social
reform that seeks to reinvigorate Japan and make it competitive for the
21st century.

Nevertheless, partly due to Japan's aging electorate, the agricultural
lobby's protectionist and nationalist rhetoric has managed to persuade
important swathes of the public and forestall any progress on the debate
on joining the TPP, in spite of calls to reform by the Cabinet and
support by the business community and a majority among younger

The stalled debate on joining the TPP has broader consequences since not
only is Japan being sidelined from global tendencies to liberalize trade
and missing a chance to reform its stagnant economy and wasteful
agriculture, but it foils American strategy in the region: to integrate
Japan in an Asia-Pacific Free Trade Area designed to counter the
influence of China and encircle it with economies integrated with that
of the US.

The Obama administration is desperate to score a major success in
foreign policy and is pressuring the Noda administration to settle the
TPP and Futenma base issues. Nevertheless, division in the Diet, within
the DPJ and within Noda's very cabinet, along with the 2011 earthquake,
make it unlikely that any national consensus will be reached in time
before the Nov 2011 deadline set by Obama. This is an important
crossroads for Japan who as in 1853 is in a stagnant isolation and,
reacting to US pressure, is debating whether or not to open to the
world. This is an ages old debate but Japan's future rests on it.


Clint Richards
Global Monitor
cell: 81 080 4477 5316
office: 512 744 4300 ex:40841