ABSTRACT
On March 15, 2013, the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announced that Japan would join the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (in Japanese: Kantai heiyō renkei kyōtei; hereafter: TPP). The decision to join the TPP was not made suddenly; it involved a lengthy process and occurred after the previous Prime Ministers Naoto Kan and Yoshihiko Noda, under the brief rule of the Democratic Party, had repeatedly advocated for Japan’s participation in the TPP but had eventually failed in their efforts to promote and expand free trade in Japan.
