Japan's Aggressive Legalism: Law and Foreign Trade Politics Beyond the WTO (review)

[ 181 ] policymaker’s library • select books published in 2008 Japan’s Aggressive Legalism: Law and Foreign Trade Politics Beyond the WTO Saadia M. Pekkanen Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008 • 432 pp. This study examines the ways in which Japanese actors have begun to strategically use law and legal processes to shape their foreign trade relations. main argument There is a new, proactive shift toward the use of law occurring in Japan today. Backed by the government, the country’s trade-dominant industries, with operational stakes at the domestic, regional, and global levels, are undertaking efforts that have led to a dramatic expansion of legalism. This legalism cuts across borders, institutional forums, and such key issues as antidumping disputes with the U.S., intellectual property concerns with both the U.S. and China, and the structuring of investment relations in the new preferential trade agreements (especially in Asia). Japan’s new aggressive use of law is making its foreign trade politics very different in character than in the past. policy implications • As the U.S. no longer has as much influence as it once did in Japan’s trade relations, the emphasis on aggressive legalism affords a key opportunity for the U.S. to reshape its economic relationship with Japan. Rather than broad bilateral paradigms that lead more to diplomatic talks than to actual policy results, the U.S. can structure specific issues of concern with Japan, such as services or investment through binding legal instruments. • The thrust of Japan’s economic realities and diplomacy are Asia-bound. The U.S. is not an Asian power, and there is considerable resentment against U.S. attempts to dabble in regional Asian institutions. The U.S. therefore seriously needs to balance its regional economic interests as expressed through Asian agreements, on the one hand, with its worldwide interests as expressed through the WTO, on the other. • ThewayWashingtondealswithJapanonthetransparentandlegitimatebasis of law will have important ramifications for how it may deal economically with China and other Asian countries in the near future. ...