TOWARDS NEW FORMS OF ECONOMIC COOPERATION BETWEEN LATIN AMERICA AND JAPAN

For more than a quarter of century economic relations between Latin America and Japan have been expanding without any serious setbacks. In recent years, these relations have become even closer in various areas concerning both sides. The mere continuation of past trends, however, may not guarantee the achievement of desirable objectives for the future on both sides, particularly in view of the recent problems the Latin American region has been facing both internally and externally. This Report attempts to clarify the nature of these problems with the aim of suggesting possibilities for establishing new forms of mutually beneficial economic cooperation between Latin America and Japan. Despite the great geographical distance between them, we believe Latin America is an important region for Japan, particularly in terms of its future development potential and the possible diversification of trade and other cooperative activities. Diversification of economic relations in terms of both countries (o