Japan Archive

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the potential impact on members’ economies. After strong earthquakes in northern Japan over the weekend, the Diet, Japan’s parliament, decided to delay ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in order to focus on disaster relief and recovery. In an email interview, Yorizumi Watanabe, a professor in the faculty of policy management at Keio University, discussed the benefits and drawbacks of TPP membership for Japan. WPR: What are the expected economic benefits and potential downsides for Japan from the TPP, and who are the expected […]

Donald Trump’s foreign policy vision, which he articulated in recent interviews with The New York Times and The Washington Post, has been greeted by many international affairs pundits with horror, derision and disdain. One thing it should not be, however, is dismissed. To be sure, Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, expresses his views in a provocative and confrontational manner. The views themselves certainly stand in stark contrast to current U.S. foreign policy orthodoxy, a product of more than 70 years of evolution since World War II. Nevertheless, though iconoclastic, they are not quite as unprecedented as many […]