Trade issues with Japan have subsided to a murmur. With the Japanese economy reeling from recession and the financial sector wallowing in a mountain of bad debt, the issue of access for foreign firms has diminished in relative importance. Nonetheless, the issue remainsâand Japanese government...

Japan is in the process of developing much closer economic ties with its Asian neighbours, at both the government and private-sector levels. While there is little official support in Japan for the creation of any formal regional integration scheme, there is evidence of Japanese behaviour leading...