Noda intends to join TPP talks

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda expressed his eagerness Monday to pursue negotiations to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement.

During talks with Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of Keidanren, Japan's biggest business lobby, Noda said Japan "must push forward" the negotiations on the multilateral free trade framework together with talks involving other free trade deals, according to Yonekura.

The government was initially scheduled to decide whether to join talks with countries involved in the TPP by around June, but the decision was delayed because it had to focus on reconstruction efforts following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

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