Last year they scored a small victory when Japan agreed a deal with Mexico.
Fishing and farming account for a very small part of Japan's total exports, even if a disproportionate share in Japan's stricken north-east.
In Japan, small firms have in the past had to pick over the job applicants that big firms have rejected.
South Korea's launch may, at least in small part, spur Japan's rearmament.
Most perish almost instantly in the relentless battle for scarce shelf-space in Japan's small shops.
In contrast, Japan is a small island with a population of just over 127 million.
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Joining TPP is opposed by most of his party and Japan's small but politically powerful farming lobby.
Japan's small and medium-size enterprises provide 80% of the jobs and most of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's votes.
North-east of the South China Sea lies a small crop of islands that Japan and China are squabbling over.
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Last month, it signed a production agreement with Japanese rival Nissan Motor to supply it with 36, 000 small cars for sale in Japan.
While the handheld device experienced a small increase in sales in Japan last week, PS Vita has been unable to achieve any significant numbers.
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MITI, about half of Japan's small companies think of themselves as subcontractors to bigger ones, a relationship which must expose them to similar pressures.
Many of Japan's small investors were burned badly in the financial crisis, when the yen suddenly shot up, leaving those holding overseas assets nursing losses.
Last week I was in Hakone, Japan, a small city an hour west of Tokyo where all of the masters in this craft originated.
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Unlike their counterparts in more regulated sectors such as retailing and construction, Japan's small manufacturers are accustomed to competition, and therefore unafraid of the deregulatory policies of the current government.
To be sure, some of the overseas investments are being made by wealthy individuals with discretionary funds, while a majority of Japan's small investors still prefer to invest in the home market.
My story Sunday saying that the danger from radiation in Japan will remain small even if things at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant go horribly wrong generated a lot of response.
Japan is too small and too concentrated.
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Japanese drugmakers aren't small because they don't invent many drugs--they're small because they sell them in Japan.
Reduced in tandem, we must add, will be even the small measure of energy independence that Japan has striven to achieve.
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Teruaki Oda of the state-owned Japan Finance Corporation for Small Business says that many small firms are beginning to develop products on their own.
The small island of Masaki in central Japan's Ago Bay was once called Treasure Island because of the riches pearl cultivation brought to its residents.
Unlike so many of America's small-cap stocks, few of Japan's are sexy technology companies with strong growth potential.
All of the above is known, and, indeed, generally accepted wisdom in Japan outside a small self-interested cabal of deniers.
Many years ago, while living in Japan, I remember one small town pretty much shut down during the Little League National Championships.
The market place is also uneasy regarding a serious territorial dispute between China and Japan regarding ownership of a small chain of islands.
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Now retired from the civil service, Taniguchi is among a small but growing number of critics within Japan who say it's time for Tokyo to stop hurting its image worldwide.
The Environment Agency of Japan points to the plethora of small plating shops as the country's worst offender in terms of toxic waste, followed (surprisingly) by dry-cleaners, hairdressers and public bath-houses.
After a lot of stretching and massaging, Ljungberg was able to train with the rest of the squad in a one-hour session at Rugby Field in the outskirts of Miyazaki, a small city of 300, 000 people on Japan's southernmost island, Kyushu.
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