Japan couldn't make up its mind, so it was up to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. On Nov. 13 he made it official: Japan would join multilateral negotiations aimed at forging a free-trading Kan-Taiheiyo Keizai Renkei Kyotei (環太平洋経済連携協定, Trans-Pacific Partnership, TPP).

It was an agonizing decision. The nation has been roughly split down the middle, with supporters anticipating crucial benefits to the all-important export sector and opponents fearing, among other things, the withering effect of cheap imports on Japan's agriculture, which is on life-support as it is.

At last month's APEC shunō kaigi (首脳会議, summit) in Honolulu, Noda declared, "TPP kōshōsanka ni mukete kankei koku to no kyōgi ni hairu koto ni shita (TPP 交渉参加に向けて関係国との協議に入ることにした, I have decided that [Japan] will participate in TPP negotiations and join discussions with the countries involved)." He added, "TPP nado wo tsūjite Ajia Taiheiyo jiyū bōeki-ken ni shudōteki yakuwari wo hatashitai (TPPなどを通じてアジア太平洋自由貿易園に主導的役割を果たしたい, I intend for [Japan] to play a leading role in the Asia-Pacific free trade zone that TPP will help create)."