ABSTRACT
The Japanese market is of critical importance to a broad range of U.S. food exporters. In 1988 this market absorbed roughly 12 percent of global food imports, and approximately 21 percent of U.S. food exports. Thus, a disproportionate share of U.S. food exports go to Japan. Furthermore, due to growing economic and political pressures on the Japanese food sector, this market is destined to expand significantly in the future (ABARE 1988). The purpose of this chapter is to examine the responsiveness of an index of U.S. competitiveness in the Japanese food market to exogenous changes in: (a) current import barriers, and (b) unit costs of food and nonfood production in the U.S., Japan, and globally, under alternative assumptions about market structure.
