Free trade, energy diversity and 'real' big data vital to Japan's survival, says METI chief Hiroshige Seko

As a resource-poor nation, Japan's prosperity relies on free trade. Under worldwide protectionism, it can't survive. That's the message Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko wants to send as the emergence of protectionism across the globe becomes a worsening headache for export-reliant Japan. "If free trade collapsed, Japan would lose its base to stand on," he said in an exclusive interview with The Japan Times earlier this month. "We have to keep in mind the basic fact that what underpins resource-poor Japan's current wealth is free trade."