ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the perceptions and policies of Japan toward regional economic arrangements in the Asia-Pacific region in general and toward Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in particular. The stalemate in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade’s (GATT)negotiations and ensuing anxieties about the future of the multilateral free trading system had been pushing many countries in the direction of economic regionalism. APEC has been regarded as an important forum not for deeper institutional regional integration but for looser policy co-ordination at the regional level through the exchange of views and information on structural adjustment, economic co-operation, technology transfer and so forth. In fact, in participating in a series of multilateral negotiations under the GATT auspices, Japan had to fight against potential and actual threats to the non-discrimination principle of the GATT system. The Japanese approach to APEC has been characterized by its emphasis on development co-operation to establish more stable economic foundations in Asian developing countries.
