Japanese lawmakers, and business and agricultural lobby groups scrambled to gather information on the progress of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks in Malaysia on Wednesday, a day after Japan joined the negotiating table.

On the sidelines of the 18th round of the TPP talks that began July 15 in Kota Kinabalu, Koya Nishikawa, chief of the TPP team of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and other Diet members met with U.S. Chamber of Commerce officials to exchange views on the negotiations and conveyed Japan's intent to protect its agricultural sector.

"We asked for their understanding on the issue of agriculture, on which we are divided," Nishikawa said after the meeting.