Do you think Japan PM Taro Aso should negotiate a free trade deal with China and Korea? -

Japan could economically benefit from free trade in East Asia as Japanese companies would have legroom to expand into other Asian markets like China (where their products are popular) and Korea (similar to China). This would mean increased profit for the Japanese companies and a stronger economy. If NAFTA worked for the US, Canada, and Mexico, would a EAFTA (East Asian Free Trade Agreement) be widely supported for Japan?

Politically, it would be a very bad move for Aso. Japanese consumers are very suspicious of Chinese imports after a string of scandals involving tainted food products, and any policy seen as going easy on China and allowing more potentially dangerous Chinese imports into Japan would be very unpopular with the general public, regardless of whether or not it would be good for business. The popular demand in Japan right now is for more regulation of trade, not less. It would also be devastating to Japanese agriculture. Thanks to the high cost of land and the shortage of cheap labor in Japan, the only way domestic Japanese agriculture can stay competitive is if the Japanese government subsidizes domestic food and erects trade barriers to imported food. If there was a free trade agreement then the price of Chinese rice would be only a fraction of the cost of Japanese rice, and millions of Japanese rice farmers would lose their livelihoods. Thirdly, it doesn t seem like Japan would gain anything through free trade that it doesn t have already. High-quality Japanese products are already available in Korea and China. Why would they need a free trade agreement when they re already doing business there?

Japanese governmental parties current status is not so stable. It has just started by accidental former PM s resignation. He has much more something else to do in priority now. A general election will sooner or later take place by end of the year. After the result, the majority party would be changed. Talking about FTA, Japan has been already blessed with international trade without it. Individual company, plant or traders have had a lot of invention and/or creation to develop how do their business must do. It doesn t really matter for Japan to establish FTA for themselves because domestic primary industry like farming or fishing and consumers don t want to face such cheap and uncertain risky products from overseas much more than now. FTA has no favor to Japan, most of all Japanese believe so at the moment so that PM should postpone this subject so far because it doesn t help to collect ballot numbers for the election.

No the PM should not do this, and he most definitely won t. Just cause they are all oriental and in somewhat the same area doesn’t mean they are all happy go lucky friends who should trade openly. It worked with US because it was basically US allowing 2 much smaller and/or poorer countries trade freely. China, Japan, and Korea are obviously not small and poor. This kind of agreement would be headline news for years to come.

Yes because Japn like the usa is Broke there finacial instiutions are in dire straights most of the world is we are not alone! It could work but we need to concentrate on America and how we can get out of our finacial crunch and greed from all the lending institutions who lied to us all last year and said all was fine!

Japan does not need FTA with those countries. China still has bunch of rogue products. Recently, toxic substance has been found from their powder milk. I don t think FTA with those countries would benefit Japan.

No. I think you should get therapy for your bad upbringing and obsessive hatemongering. Nasty bigot.

yes