ISDS Case Map
Japan
Amid intensifying rivalry between Tokyo and Beijing over influence in Asia, Japan is revving up its drive to strengthen relations with countries in Indochina, an economically backward but geopolitically important part of the region. The target countries are Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, which are collectively referred to as the "CLV" countries.
Japan is the preferred US candidate among Asian powers to penetrate an increasingly eastward leaning Middle East. In providing advanced technology and investments that the region desperately needs, Japan has an advantage over India and China in this new rivalry for Middle East influence.
A proposed side agreement to the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement aimed at ensuring that no toxic wastes will be exported to the Philippines will not not solve the deeper, more substantive problems of the JPEPA.
Japan has begun considering bilateral free trade agreements with both the United States and the European Union, with specific plans. If the studies proceed smoothly, Japan and the United States are expected to start FTA negotiations "around the summer of 2009 after the launch of a new US administration," a senior METI official said.
Japan will give formal assurance to Philippine senators that it will not dump toxic and hazardous waste on the Philippines in an attempt to convince them to ratify the controversial Japan- Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
The most significant constraint in FTA negotiations is not international negotiation between two governments, but domestic negotiation with various domestic constituencies, such as organized farmers and labor, the national assembly, NGOs, etc. This paper analyzes the domestic conflicts that arise in FTA negotiations in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly focusing on the US, Japan, China and Korea.
A Joint Statement from Australian and Japanese people
200 Japanese businessmen expressed that they would invest in the Philippines only after the approval of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
The head of Japan's largest big-business group urged the government Monday to strike a free trade agreement with the European Union to alleviate impediments to two-way trade and ensure a freer flow of invesment funds.
Switzerland is the first European country with which Japan negotiates an FTA.
