The notion that New Zealand's food exporters might one day have preferential market access to the Japanese economy would not that long ago have been considered fanciful.
However, US President Donald Trump's withdrawal of his country from what is now the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership) — previously the TPP — has created that very scenario.
Japan, along with Australia and New Zealand, filled the vacuum created by the US withdrawal, continuing to make the case for a viable partnership between the 11 remaining parties to the agreement — Canada, Peru, Mexico, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Chile.
This is good news for the Japan-NZ bilateral trade relationship, which, while historically strong, has also been relatively inert in terms of its development, relative to its potential growth and what might be achieved. Certainly there has been underlying currents of dissatisfaction on the New Zealand side about Japan's bulwark agricultural protectionism, elements of which remain even in this latest agreement, underscoring that no deal is perfect.
However, Japan's status as the only Asian nation with whom New Zealand does not have a free trade agreement, is about to change — and big time.