Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has launched a government office to mitigate potential adverse impacts from the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement in a bid to ease concerns among farmers and small business owners and help companies advance into overseas markets.
Abe convened a meeting of all 19 ministers at the prime minister's office on Friday morning to declare the launch of the office, which is seen as a political gesture to appeal to rural supporters of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
"TPP is the trump card of the growth strategy to create an open and vigorous economy," Abe told ministers at the meeting's end.