Japan's ruling party is debating whether the country should join negotiations for a sprawling, US-backed Pacific free trade zone that big exporters insist is vital to keeping Japan competitive - but that farmers fear will ruin them. Top government officials have signaled that Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda plans to make a decision before he leaves for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hawaii, where President Barack Obama and 20 other regional leaders will gather this weekend. Several Cabinet ministers and business leaders have spoken out strongly in favor of joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade bloc made up of four small economies - Chile, New Zealand, Brunei and Singapore. The US, Australia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Peru are already in talks to join. Some APEC member economies see the Pacific trade pact as a building block for a free trade area that encompasses all of Asia and the Pacific, covering half the world's commerce and two-fifths of its trade. Media reports say Noda plans to explain to the public why Japan, the world's third-biggest economy, should join the Pacific pact at a press conference Thursday. The ruling party is split over the issue, with a vocal ex-agricultural minister and others actively campaigning against it. Introducing more competition just as Japan is trying to recover from the March tsunami disaster and nuclear power plant crisis is bad timing, critics say. Joining the so-called TPP would mean eliminating tariffs on imports into all member economies.
