Canadian Perspectives On Economic Relations With Japan

This paper discusses a number of topics on Japanese-Canadian relations including: why now is an opportune moment to improve relations; getting right the macroeconomic setting; restructuring and expanding the Japanese economy; prospects for trade, investment, and technology exchanges; and prospective policies. It includes an observation paper which is intended to heighten Canadians' awareness of the opportunities for expanding and deepening Canada's economic relations with Japan.

The papers in this volume were developed for an informal symposium held in Vancouver in April 1988. The papers range from descriptions of possible realigned world political orders to questions of international trade and domestic economic priorities; and from the "greying" of the population of the industrial world and associated social policy issues such as health care and pensions to the imperative of implementing sustainable economic development worldwide.

Patricia E. Roy is the winner of the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award, Canadian Historical Association. Canada's early participation in the Asia-Pacific region was hindered by "contradictory impulses" shaping its approach. For over half a century, racist restrictions curtailed immigration from Japan, even as Canadians manoeuvred for access to the fabled wealth of the Orient. Canada's relations with Japan have changed profoundly since then. In Contradictory Impulses, leading scholars draw upon the most recent archival research to examine an important bilateral relationship that has matured in fits and starts over the past century. As they makes clear, the two countries' political, economic, and diplomatic interests are now more closely aligned than ever before and wrapped up in a web of reinforcing cultural and social ties. Contradictory Impulses is a comprehensive study of the social, political, and economic interactions between Canada and Japan from the late nineteenth century until today.

The papers presented in this publication cover the following topics: lessons from the past concerning national sovereignty and firms; Canadian responses to globalization; problems of foreign workers; immigration, the Canadian labour force, and structural change; present conditions of globalized private enterprise in Canada; globalization of Japanese enterprise; economic issues shared by Japan and Canada and economic structural adjustment; and international economic integration and national policy diversity.