Japan and East Asian Integration - Trade and Domestic Politics

For almost fifty years Japan pursued a single-track approach focusing trade negotiation efforts exclusively on the global multilateral forum while shunning regionalism as harmful to the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs/ World Trade Organisation system. However, following the tsunami disaster of March 2011 and widespread economic downturn Tokyo has engaged much more actively in pursuing bilateral Free-Trade Agreements (FTAs).

This book explores the turnaround in Japanese strategy and trade policy. Drawing on case studies and including interviews with FTA policymakers within the government and key interest groups it focusses on the domestic political process of FTA and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations to investigate the cause of the policy shift.

This work will prove useful to students, scholars and policymakers interested in international political economy, Japanese trade policy, East Asian regionalism and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

List of contents

Introduction. Chapter 1 Globalization and the New Regionalism: The Interplay between Divergence and Convergence. Chapter 2 Domestic Politics of Japanese FTA Policy: An Analysis of the Japan-Singapore FTA Negotiation Process. Chapter 3 Domestic Politics of Japanese FTA Policy: An Analysis of the Japan–Mexico FTA Negotiation Process. Chapter 4 East Asian Integration and Domestic Politics: The Case of South Korea. Chapter 5 Japan’s Choice: TPP Rule Setter or Follower? Chapter 6 Conclusion: The Evolution and Implications of Japan’s FTA/TPP

About the author

Jemma Kim is Associate Professor of the School of Global Japanese Studies at Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan. She earned her PhD in International Relations from Graduate School of Law, Hitotsubashi University, 2008 (Double Master Degree in both Korea University and Hitotsubashi University). Her specialties are International Political Economy, FTA policy and East Asian international relations. Prior to joining Meiji University, she was Assistant Professor at the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University and COE researcher at the Department of Law in Hitotsubashi University.

Summary

This book explores the turnaround in Japanese strategy and trade policy from a single-track approach to greater engagement in pursuing bilateral Free-Trade Agreements.

Additional text

"Jemma Kim examines the theoretical and empirical issues on both economic globalism and regionalism. How will bilateralism affect other types of trade arrangements? Will it play a complementary or substitutive role? The question of why bilateral forms of FTAs rather than multilateral arrangements are burgeoning in the Asia Pacific region is answered by both political and economic approaches. Kim offers thorough and valuable insights into how Japan and South Korea came to accept regional FTA. This book is a must for anyone who wants to understand Japanese FTA policy and surely regarded as one of the most important contributions to Asia Pacific economic regionalism." - Shujiro Urata, Waseda University, Japan.
"Based on extensive interviews with those involved in the delicate tripartite compromise among ministry officials, interest group representatives and national diet members over the sensitive issue of agricultural trade liberalization, Jemma Kim offers a compelling domestic political account of Japan’s choice at critical phases of its foreign trade negotiations." - Atsushi Ishida, The University of Tokyo, Japan.
"This is exactly what the international political economy in Asia needs: A theoretical analysis of globalization and regionalism based on insightful empirical studies of Japan's domestic politics in trade issues. Dr. Kim providesstrong stimulation for the discussion of regionalism and East Asian integration." - Ryo Oshiba, Professor Emeritus, Hitotsubashi University.

Product details

• Authors: Jemma Kim
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.05.2020
• EAN: 9780367524470
• ISBN: 978-0-367-52447-0
• No. of pages: 176
• Series: Rethinking Asia and International Relations
• Subject: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education