Political And Economic Analysis On Japan’s Accession To The TPP

In November2009, U.S. President Barack Obama’s visited to Japan andannounced that the U.S. would join the Trans-Pacific Strategic Partnership Agreement(TPP).The unknown TPP is widespread concerned now. Many APEC members adopt apositive attitude, coupled with persuasion and agitation, Japan also began to considerthe TPP negotiations. APEC Summit was held in November2010, Japanese PrimeMinister Naoto Kan announced that Japan would be concerned with the countries whathad joined the TPP negotiation and led to widespread controversy and discussionoutside of Japan. There is a big difference on whether to join the TPP in Japan.Agricultural Concord Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan’sagriculture-based groups think that Japan joined the TPP will make the bankruptcy ofJapan’s agriculture, so they strongly opposed Japanese government to join into TPP;Ministry of Economy on behalf of the trade and industry organizations announced thattaking part in the TPP can change the backward situation of Japan’s trade liberalizationconducive to exports, thus contributing to economic development. The Japanesegovernment was scheduled to make a decision whether to participate in the TPPnegotiations in June2011, but this plan was postponed due to the outbreak of the EastJapan earthquake in March2011.Until the evening of11November2011, Noda,Japan’s new prime minister, officially announced that Japan would participate in theTPP negotiations in Tokyo.It’s so hard for Japan to make the decision to participate in the TPP negotiations.on the one hand, because Japan needs to consider the political and economic intereststo join the TPP and the size of the cost, on the other hand, because of the intense gamebetween the real level of interest groups makes it difficult for the Government tomake a choice in the short term. This article focuses on the decision-making of Japan’saccession to the TPP formation process,and then analysis the political and economicinfluence once Japan joined the TPP, and points out that the game of interest groupsand the Government’s ability to resolve the conflict of interest groups will ultimately decide the accession process of the TPP. Finally, it looks ahead the influence on Chinafor Japan’s accession to the TPP and makes to the following conclusions: China shouldnot rush to join the TPP, it should continue to advance the trade liberalization andpromote the further development of the "three rural".