When US Commodore Matthew Perry steamed into Japan's Edo (now Tokyo) Bay with his "black ships of evil mien" on July 8, 1853, he forced open Japan, which the Tokugawa shoguns had run for 250 years as a reclusive feudal state.

The country is opening up again 162 years later, this time to another 11 countries, with an agreement reached on the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade initiative.

For some of the countries, though, the TPP is more than just a trade deal. The United States and Japan have made no secret of its geopolitical implications for competing with, if not confronting, China.