ABSTRACT
Trade politics in Japan provides a classic illustration of structural immobilism in the policy-making system. Despite major transitions in party governments, the relative powers, roles and policy positions of the institutions and actors involved, as well as the central issues, have altered little over the years. The main impetus for change has come from outside-from Japan’s trading partners-in multilateral, regional and bilateral trade negotiations. Even then, the degree of market opening for politically sensitive items, especially rice, has been limited and has required substantial compensation for domestic producers. This chapter will outline these long-standing features of trade politics with examples
drawn primarily from Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) administrations in 2009-12 and more recently from the administration of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Prime Minister Abe Shinzo-.
