Analysis Of The U S Japan Trade Problem

Although much has been written on Japan-US relations and bilateral trade problems in recent years, this study of Japan-US trade friction and the role perceptual differences have played in its evolution differs from other analyses in important ways. This book should be of great interest to scholars, government officials and business leaders in Japan, the United States and other countries in the global community who are interested in bilateral relations, international economic and political affairs and trade friction. It should also be of special interest to social psychologists and cross-cultural scholars and researchers.

In a few years, the United States has gone from worrying about Japan's economic might to worrying about its meltdown. The rise and fall of America's 'results-oriented' trade policy towards Japan captures this turnaround. John Kunkel traces this Japan policy to a crisis in the institutions, laws and norms of the US trade policy regime in the first half of the 1980s. This arose from the erosion of America's post-war international economic dominance (especially vis-à-vis Japan) and the unintended consequences of Reaganomics. The crisis in turn led to the progressive ascendancy of a coalition of 'hardliners' over 'free traders' after 1985. Kunkel combines research in economics, politics and history - including interviews with key policy-makers - to illuminate this important case study of American trade policy. His book offers theoretical insights and practical lessons on the forces shaping US trade policy at the start of the twenty-first century.

Relations between Japan and the US remain strong, and government-to-government relations continue to be productive. However, complaints can be heard. This volume reflects these sentiments and emphasizes the need to promote closer ties and greater understanding between the US and Japan.

Closing a critical gap in the literature examining the strained relationship between the U.S. and Japan, this book synthesizes the economic, political, historical, and cultural factors that have led these two nations, both practitioners of capitalism, along quite different paths in search of different goals. Taking an objective, multidisciplinary approach, the author argues that there is no single explanation for Japan's domestic economic or foreign trade successes. Rather, his analysis points to a systemic mismatch that has been misdiagnosed and treated with inadequate corrective measures. This systemic mismatch in the corporate strategy, economic policies, and attitudes of the U.S. and Japan created and is perpetuating three decades of bilateral economic frictions and disequilibria. As long as both the U.S. and Japan deal more with symptoms than causes, bilateral problems will persist. This book's unique analysis will encourage a better understanding on both sides of the Pacific of what has happened, is happening, and will continue to happen if corporate executives and policymakers in the two countries do not better realize the extent of their differences and adopt better corrective measures.

This volume presents the most recent studies on Japanese and American trade, antitrust, patent, and other laws and their effects on bilateral economic relations. The studies included, written by Japanese and American officials, lawyers, and economists, will be of interest to policy makers, scholars, and corporations concerned with or interested in bilateral trade, technology transfer, investment, and joint ventures. The studies also offer analyses and insights significant in examining the legal-economic issues involved in economic relations among all advanced industrial nations. The three foci of the book are Japan's laws and their enforcement which affect the practices and behavior of individuals, firms, and the government within its domestic economy; the effects of Japanese laws and legal administrative practices on foreign access to Japanese markets; and the roles American laws play in bilateral economic relations. Each article deals with specific Japanese and American laws affecting bilateral economic relations. Together they succeed in substantively increasing our understanding of the issues involved and in identifying the changes that are called for that will reduce the bilateral economic conflicts which now mar the otherwise friendly relations between the two nations. Resolution of these bilateral legal-economic issues will be difficult to attain because they arise in part from differences in legal traditions and in the roles government plays in each economy. However, only through studies such as those offered in this volume, prepared by individuals directly involved i n enforcement of the laws discussed and by scholars specializing in the legal-economic issues affecting bilateral economic relations, can we gain knowledge and insights essential in taking the necessary steps to reduce bilateral economic conflicts.