Japan already appears to be implementing one key aspect of the U.S. proposals relating to governmental transparency. The United States requested that the GOJ implement notice and comment rulemaking procedures on a government-wide basis. It now appears that the Japanese Management and Coordination Agency will soon recommend and propose the implementation of a notice and comment procedure. This action is intended to be completed by the end of March 1999 as part of a broad GOJ deregulation package.
The pressure on Japan to deregulate also is being directed from the EU and Canada, which have recently presented Japan with their own deregulation proposals for the Japanese economy. The EU and Canada, like the United States, view Japan's 1999 review of its deregulation program as an opportunity to seek far-reaching reform from Japan.
Japan's key trading partners have presented their deregulatory requests within the context of the need for Japanese economic growth. This approach differs in tone and substance from that used by the United States in recent years, which attacked the regulatory infrastructure in Japan as a barrier to trade (as argued in the Fuji-Kodak film dispute). By now presenting deregulation as an economic growth issue necessary to Asia's economic recovery -- as opposed to a bilateral trade dispute or a debate over whose economic model is superior -- the United States may be better positioned to encourage Japanese reform.