This paper is based on research conducted in Australia and the United States into Australian aims toward the Allied Occupation of Japan under the Chifley government between 1945 and 1949. It challenges the prevailing characterisation of Australian aims as solely seeking a ‘harsh peace’ with...

Japan’s small farming represents a puzzle. Currently nearly three-quarters of farmland is operated by farmers whose farm size is well under optimal size. Being too small is the main reason for the high cost of Japanese farm products, so why does inefficient, small farming persist and market...

Two propositions appear to be gaining wide currency, given the revealed preference for preferential trade agreements (PTAs) in the East Asian region and elsewhere. The first is that economic integration is a good way to promote economic growth. The second is that PTAs, particularly ones that go...

Recent cross-Strait tensions following Taiwan’s more assertive attempts at international recognition have raised the question of the viability of Taiwan’s strategy of divorcing its policy of ‘pragmatic diplomacy’ from its economic ambitions to achieve the status of a middle-level...

This paper develops an agency-transaction cost model of foreign direct investment (FDI) by Japanese MNEs in Australian manufacturing, financial services and tourism in the 1990s. A survey questionnaire, constructed using the theory, was completed by 69 Japanese MNEs operating in Australia. Based...

After years of foot-dragging over the need to internationalise the yen, in 1998 the Japanese government implemented a series of institutional measures to enhance the convenience of using the currency. These have had only modest success. This paper argues that three conditions need to be...

This paper examines the credentials of the realist approach to international political economy as explanatory theory of postwar US trade policy. It argues that the realist link between international structure, US national trade interest and policy outcome is not strong. Empirical anomalies are...

It has been reported in the media that bid rigging is commonly practised in almost all public works projects in Japan. It was also said that the Japanese anti-trust author­ity, the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC), was a watchdog that did not bite, in spite of having a long history of...

An intergovernmental regional economic institution was a common goal of Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, his Office, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Japanese Ministry of International Trade Industry (MITI) in the late 1980s. Bob Hawke publicly announced...