Japan is Canada's most important overseas trading partner, yetthe backgound of this relationship is comparatively unknown to mostCanadians. In order to bridge this gap, the author surveys Canadianforeign policy aims towards Japan since WWII with emphasis on thedevelopment of economic ties. He illustrates the role of majordepartments, ministries, diplomats, businessmen, and other leadingparticipants and the processess by which these aims succeeded orfailed. This objective analysis will prove a valuable reference source forstudents, officials, bureaucrats, historians, businessmen and women,journalists, and all those interested not only in economic relationsbetween Canada and Japan but also in the way foreign policy isformulated in Canada.

After World War II, Japan reemerged in the arena of international relations as an almost exclusively economic power without military might or territorial ambitions. Within some thirty years it transformed itself from a semideveloped state to a technological superpower with an economy that today is the second largest in the free world, next only to the United States, accounting for over 10 percent of total global production. The management of a rapidly growing industrial state with little domestic supply of resources necessarily requires great skill in the difficult task of maintaining sufficient access to overseas markets to sustain internal economic activity. Not surprisingly, then, Japan's foreign relations from World War II to the present have been heavily conditioned by economic considerations. This collection of original articles investigates how the economic growth of Japan has affected the pattern of its foreign relations and where and to what extent economic principles have had to be compromised for political, legal, cultural, or ideological reasons. The contributors, experts on Japan's economy, politics, and foreign relations, analyze the state of Japan's foreign relations with North America, the EC, Oceania, the Soviet Union, COMECON, China, ASEAN, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Korea, and Taiwan, focusing on developments in the last seven years and predicting likely trends in the 1980s.

Two of the biggest issues facing nation states in the twenty-first century are the role of government in the management of national economies, and the cultivation of international trade and investment in an age of globalization. In Government, International Trade, and Laissez-Faire Capitalism Carin Holroyd offers a comprehensive comparison of Australian, Canadian, and New Zealand policies and strategies aimed at improving economic relations with Japan, the world's second largest economy. She illustrates negative consequences that result when governments withdraw from trade promotion and leave the development of commercial opportunities to the private sector. Holroyd focuses on how Australia, Canada, and New Zealand responded to the dramatic changes in the Japanese economy that followed the 1985 Plaza Accord and currency reforms. She examines trade promotional activities, efforts to coordinate business responses to the Japanese market, and the cultivation of Japanese investment, indicating how new paradigms of state involvement in the economy influenced international trading activity. Holroyd demonstrates that rather than responding proactively to changing conditions and new opportunities, the national business sectors stayed with traditional patterns of trade and investment, losing significantly in market share and export opportunities as a consequence.

The World Today Series: Canada is an annually updated presentation of Canada. It provides the reader an in-depth look at the country’s culture, geography, people, economy, politics and future. The combination of factual accuracy and up-to-date detail along with its informed projections make this an outstanding resource for researchers, practitioners in international development, media professionals, government officials, potential investors and students.

The contents in this volume are organized into sections dealing with Canada’s culture; geography; people; history; political system (including the constitution, monarchy, parliament, legal and court system, federalism and the provinces, parties and elections); defense; economy; the future; and a comprehensive bibliography.

The World Today Series: Canada is an annually updated presentation of Canada. It provides the reader an in-depth look at the country’s culture, geography, people, economy, politics and future. The combination of factual accuracy and up-to-date detail along with its informed projections make this an outstanding resource for researchers, practitioners in international development, media professionals, government officials, potential investors and students.

The World Today Series: Canada is an annually updated presentation of Canada. It provides the reader an in-depth look at the country’s culture, geography, people, economy, politics and future. The combination of factual accuracy and up-to-date detail along with its informed projections make this an outstanding resource for researchers, practitioners in international development, media professionals, government officials, potential investors and students.