The ink is barely dry on the reworked Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) signed last week by 11 countries, but there is a question mark over whether the pact will take effect any time soon as the pact’s largest economy, Japan, is embroiled in a domestic scandal that could cost Shinzo Abe his position as prime minister. The scandal surrounds the 2016 sale of state-owned land to a nationalist operator of schools who claims ties to Abe and his wife Akie. The sale was clinched at a price well below market value amid allegations that the high-level connections helped grease the deal. Even without the US, the TPP is an important deal and could become a blueprint for future regional free trade agreements. Other nations have the chance to enter at a later time.