ABSTRACT
Japan today remains the world's largest importer of food and commodities. The Japanese trade surplus is largely the result of low prices in the raw materials and food that Japan imports. The Japanese have also benefited because food and commodities, with their low prices, are traded in dollars. And since 1985 the dollar has been devalued—at times by as much as half—against the yen. As a result of these various factors, the Japanese pay little more than one third of what might be considered the "normal" value of the food and raw materials they import. Since the Japanese know that there is tremendous political risk in buying American real assets—movie companies, Manhattan landmarks and so on—United States Treasury bills are almost the only thing they can buy. The industries in which the Japanese are strongest are the ones in which Europe has the most overcapacity and incredible overemployment.
