East Asian free trade agreement: Strategic aspects for Japan

Although the globalization of economic activities is the main trend, regionalism in the form of regional economic integration also began to develop around the end of the 20^th century and has grown more rapidly in the 21^st century. The scale and scope of activities of an economic unit has been changed by developments in telecommunication and transportation technologies, as well as in production and distribution technologies. Information technology has improved the network-system of mutual exchanges of those technologies. An optimum economic border is different from a national border, and the integration of national borders will become necessary when an economic space of one nation is not sufficiently large. Economic effects of regional economic integration depend on the level of technologies and the size of markets, above all.