Japan's prickly relationswithRussiadid not stopToshibaagreeing on joint reactor-construction and fuel-production effortswith state-owned Atomenergoprom.
Yes I have seen the advocacy for Liquid Fluoride Thorium reactors and there are some apparent tantalizing advantages over current Uranium reactor designs like ability to burn plutonium as a starter fuel, less production of transuranics, higher fuel burn efficiencies, etc.