Japan’s Agricultural Issues Analysis In TPP Negotiations

“The Trans-Pacific Partnership”(TPP) is the predecessor of the Trans-PacificStrategic Economic Partnership Agreement(TPSEP, also known as P4)signed byBrunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore in2005.The first few years of theestablishment did not attract much attention. However, TPP did not cause widespreadconcern in the international community until the United States showed its willingnessto participate in the TPP and meant to see TPP as an important strategy for its return tothe Asia-Pacific region. Subsequently, under the promotion and influence of the UnitedStates, Australia, Malaysia, Canada and other10countries joined the TPP. Japanofficially joined the TPP negotiations after overcoming many difficulties in July23,2013.However, when Naoto Kan vowed to join the TPP in2010, a wave of protestappeared in Japan. Since joining TPP for Japan is touching the most vulnerableindustry——agriculture. The share of agriculture does not highly account for GDP, butagriculture still plays a very important role in the national economy and is protectedfor a long time. Throughout the history of the EPA/FTA signed by Japan, theagriculture tariffs issues has dragged the pace of Japan to realize free trade. What’smore, TPP is a high level of free trade agreement. For those interest groups whosupport agriculture, in the face of100%to remove the high requirements for tariffs, isundoubtedly a heavy blow. As a result, Japan’s TPP strategy faces multiple difficulties.The paper briefly describes the generation, development and content of TPP. Onthe basis of expounding process and focal point of Japan’s joining the TPP, analyze thecurrent situation and trade protection of Japanese agriculture. Agriculture protectionhas become a stumbling block to promote the process of TPP. The paper focuses on theanalysis of the influence of joining the TPP negotiations on agriculture in Japan. Take advantage of different results from different departments to analyze the impacts of TPPon agriculture. Then from the economic, political, cultural and historical perspective,to analyze the obstacles which impede agricultural market to open. Finally, Japan’sentry into the TPP has become established fact, how to promote agricultural reformwill be the focus of realizing trade liberalization in the future. Based on the content, thepaper puts forward the direction of agriculture related to reform and adjustment and thechallenges may encounter on the way to the future agriculture reform.