After a new round of calls for the resignation of Japan's gaffe-prone agricultural minister, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition on Wednesday gave up trying to pass a bill to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement through a special Lower House committee.
The failure by the Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito coalition to adopt the bill at the committee tasked with TPP deliberations — a key step toward its passage through the Lower House plenary session — compromised Abe's effort to win domestic approval of the multinational deal before the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday.
With U.S. presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both opposed to the deal, Tokyo was desperate to pass the bill through the Lower House plenary session before Election Day. Such a decisive legislative step, the government hoped, would send a powerful message that Japan has no intention of accepting a request for renegotiations from the U.S. side.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.