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What determines people's preferences regarding trade policy? Existing studies have assumed that people consider trade policy merely trade politics; accordingly, these studies have focused on economic factors, such as benefits to individual or national welfare; ideational factors, such as xenophobia; or domestic political factors. This paper reveals that the international political factor of national security influences ordinary people's preferences for trade policy. While several studies have addressed the effect of the national security factor, they did not persuasively reveal the causal mechanism of the relationship between the national security factor and people's trade preferences. The present study conducted a factorial survey experiment to investigate the causal effect and the causal mechanism of the security factor on people's preferences regarding free trade agreements (FTAs). The results of the experiment conducted in Japan reveal that ordinary people consider the national security factor along the so-called realism path in forming their opinions regarding FTAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The signing of an eight-year private trade agreement between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Japan on 16 February 1978, envisaging exchanges between 1978 and 1985 of goods worth US$10 billion each way, and the conclusion of the Sino-Japanese treaty of peace and friendship on 12 August 1978, laid the foundation for the PRC's Japan policy in the period after the fall of the Gang of Four.[1]
Under its present pragmatic leadership, the PRC appears to have been relying more and more heavily on the West and on Japan for capital and advanced technology for the realization of its 'four modernizations'. Japan's role in the PRC's modernization programme is certainly significant. After the first loan of 300 billion yen for 1979-83, the Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone promised in his PRC visit in March 1984 a second loan of 470 billion yen ($2.08 billion) for 1984-90.[2] Similar perceptions of the Soviet threat have also contributed to the development of Sino-Japanese relations. It was reported that when Hu Yaobang, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), visited Japan in November 1983, he compared the PRC and Japan to rival heroes in a Chinese classic tale and stated: 'When they fought, both sides were weakened. But when they were united, they were invincible.'[3] Invincibility may be an exaggeration, but the complementarily of the two economies and the vast potential of their cooperation will obviously affect the power balance of the Asia-Pacific region, and in the future perhaps that of the world. This article intends to trace the evolution of the PRC's Japan policy since the fall of the Gang of Four, analyse the achievements and problems of the bilateral relationship, and assess the implications for the Asia-Pacific region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]