Despite the Diet's approval Friday of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation free trade agreement is unlikely to come into force as it currently stands given U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to pull the United States out of it once he takes office in January.

Some scholars have suggested that if the Trump administration does quit the TPP, the 11 other member states should renegotiate the deal so it can go into effect without U.S. participation, rather than giving it up altogether.

The TPP, in its current form, can only take effect if it is ratified by at least six members that represent 85 percent of the combined gross domestic product of the 12 members. Without U.S. ratification, the free trade agreement would effectively be dead because the United States alone accounts for 60 percent of the group's total GDP.