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Japan: Continued Growth Or Decline?
| Article
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20632 |
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Section : |
EDITORIAL
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1992 |
454 Words |
| Author
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Morton A. Kaplan
Editor and Publisher |
In our November 1990 issue, we ran a series of articles entitled "The Coming Decline of Japan?" In this issue, we continue to explore the topic with Arthur Laffer's important article and comments by Robert Ozaki, William Rapp, Alan Reynolds, and Toshiyuki Shiohara.
The relations between Japan and the United States have been of vital importance for nearly fifty years and will continue to remain important for the foreseeable future. It once was said that when the United States sneezes, the world catches pneumonia. Today, rallies on the Tokyo stock market tend to produce rallies on the New York Stock Exchange and declines drops.
This relationship is too important to both countries to allow prejudice or ignorance to injure it. In both countries, arrogance is dangerous to this relationship. I have been told in Japan that nothing in the United States, other than agricultural products, is worth buying. But the razor my Japanese hotel supplies in the morning, of Japanese make, is unfit for use and far inferior to Gillette or Schick equivalents. (A number of American high-technology products are superior to Japanese products, for that matter.) In the past, American automobile manufacturers were so arrogant that innovative U.S. technology could find a market only in Japan.
Both countries face problems in their mutual economic relations. Although we can hardly ask the Japanese to change their culture, within which keiretsu organize sales and purchases, Japanese legislation that impedes imports or the protection of patents surely can be changed. American companies surely can learn how to adapt their products for Japanese tastes and to develop connections within Japan. When the Japanese voluntarily reduce their exports to us, American companies ought to be able to lower prices to gain market share.
Part of the problem may be solved when the Japanese decide to enjoy life more and, thus, to buy more. Another part of the problem will be solved if the United States revolutionizes its educational system and restores its manufacturing efficiency. But just as important is recognition that the competitive interests of Japan and the United States are outweighed by their mutual interests. The stronger our economies are, the more we can buy from and sell to each other. The United States has no interest in a declining Japan, even if, to some extent, this is unavoidable.
Laffer's article and the comments on it show how complex any analysis of Japan's
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