Category Archives: Trade Talks

【Opinion】 In a country where bureaucrats monopolize state secrets, TPP negotiations remain in the dark

By Ryuichi Teshima, Diplomatic Journalist and Writer Holding up heavily redacted documents on the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks, opposition party lawmakers urged the government to disclose the details of the negotiations in the Diet sessions in April. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other Cabinet ministers refused, saying the government cannot disclose the negotiation process since Japan joined the negotiations under the condition that it should be kept confidential. Opposition lawmakers were not convinced. They showed the manuscript of pre-publication memoirs authored by former farm minister Koya Nishikawa which reveals details of what went on in negotiations behind closed doors, and asked why the information cannot be disclosed … Continue reading

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【News】 Ruling coalition officially decides to postpone TPP ratification until post-election Diet session (April 26, 2016)

Representatives of the ruling parties, Sadakazu Tanigaki, Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and his Komeito counterpart Yoshihisa Inoue, met in Tokyo on April 25 and officially decided to put off attempting to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pact and enact relevant bills at the current Diet session. They agreed that the TPP pact ratification and related bills approval should be advanced for further deliberations at the Lower House session, aiming at final approval and enactment at an extraordinary Diet session to be convened after the Upper House election this summer. LDP’s Secretary-General Sadakazu Tanigaki said at the press conference on the same day “The TPP ratification … Continue reading

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【News】 TPP ratification to be deferred until after the current Diet session (April 20, 2016)

Shinzo Abe’s Administration and the ruling bloc found on April 19 that the ratification on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pack and relevant bills will hardly be approved at the Lower House by the end of April, although they had expected the Lower House would pass the TPP accord and related bills as scheduled. The Diet affairs chiefs of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the opposite Democratic Party (DP) had a meeting to confirm the TPP Special Committee of the Lower House will not be able to get through the schedule of TPP debate sessions planned over the end of April. It is now highly probable that Lower … Continue reading

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【News】 Diet deliberation starts on TPP pact amid growing opposition to agreements on its trade liberalization (April 6, 2016)

Lawmakers of the Lower House began on April 5 debates on a draft approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade accord and related bills, including measures to support farmers, at its plenary session. “The TPP deal is the best possible result from the perspective of Japan’s national interests,” Prime Minster Shinzo Abe claimed. On the other hand, opposition parties such as the Democratic Party (DC) highly criticized Abe’s Administration by pointing out the Administration has agreed to unprecedentedly open the Japanese market of farm products, which “obviously violates the resolution of the Diet.” A TPP tug-of-war between the ruling block and opposition parties was played from the beginning of … Continue reading

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【News】 Abe’s Administration unveils “blacked-out” documents concerning TPP ministerial meetings between Japan and US (April 6, 2016)

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Administration took a step of unveiling a part of documents concerning the ministerial meetings between Japan and the United States on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal to the opposition Democratic Party (DP) on April 5, which had demanded the Government to publicize the documents. All of the revealed documents, however, are blacked out only except headings and dates of each page. They are not copies of the meetings’ papers, but are partly redacted ones. The 45-page documents are briefing papers prepared for the Cabinet Office’s meetings, according to the Japanese Government’s TPP Headquarters at the Cabinet Secretariat Office. Most sentences of the documents have … Continue reading

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