2008年9月金融危机爆发以来，全球贸易环境恶化，缔结自由贸易协定（FTA）、建立自由贸易区成为各国和地区规避贸易保护主义风险、促进贸易稳定发展、应对危机的一个重要途径。日本也加快了推进本国“经济伙伴协定”（EPA）
Since the eruption of the global financial crisis in September 2008，the environment for global trade worsened.Signing Free Trade Agreements（FTA）and establishing free trade areas have become，for nearly every country and area，an important way to avoid the risk of trade protectionism，to promote for stable trade development and to deal with the financial crisis.Japan has also been accelerating the pace of promoting its Economic Partnership Agreement （EPA）strategy，and some new trends and features have cropped up in terms of negotiation partners，market-opening and regionalization countermeasures.For Japan，it is beneficial to take an active part to promote its EPA strategy.On one hand，it can avoid being marginalized in the trend of economic globalization and regionalization，and gain economic benefits from the liberalization of trade and investment.On the other hand，it may also help boosting Japan’s regional and international influence.To gain its anticipative results，Japan needs not only to avoid negative impacts in the course of establishing free trade areas，but also to deal with relevant issues.
