Japan is Canada's most important overseas trading partner, yet the backgound of this relationship is comparatively unknown to most Canadians. In order to bridge this gap, the author surveys Canadian foreign policy aims towards Japan since WWII with emphasis on the development of economic ties. He illustrates the role of major departments, ministries, diplomats, businessmen, and other leading participants and the processess by which these aims succeeded or failed.

This objective analysis will prove a valuable reference source for students, officials, bureaucrats, historians, businessmen and women, journalists, and all those interested not only in economic relations between Canada and Japan but also in the way foreign policy is formulated in Canada.

Frank C. Langdon was a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy during the Second World War. He served as a communications officer in the Pacific area and in 1946 and 1947 remained in Japan as an economic advisor on the staff of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Forces in Tokyo. In the course of researching this book he returned three times to Japan to interview statesmen, politicians, scholars and businessmen. Dr. Langdon is fluent in Japanese. A native of Illinois, Dr. Langdon is professor of political science at the University of British Columbia. He holds a BA in economics, an MA in Asian studies (both from Harvard) and his PhD is from the University of California (Berkeley).

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