External US pressure on Japan's policy reform in the case of large-scale retail store law

Abstract

The Structural Impediments Initiative (SII) talks held from September 1989 to July 1990 represented the first attempt by Japan and the United States to harmonise their domestic problems in international trade negotiations. These bilateral talks were also the first of their kind to delve into a comprehensive review of domestic laws and intrinsic business practices. In this sense, the SII talks may be seen as a preamble to mutual arrangements by domestic economies of their respective institutions and practices. This is likely to feature more prominently in the field of international relations, as seen recently in the European Community (EC) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In this context, as the United States and Japan are the two largest and most technologically advanced economies in the world, accounting for more than 40 per cent of the world total gross national product, it is significant that they started harmonising their domestic rules through the SII talks, which are examined in this thesis. Show more