ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the basic aspects of economic relations between Latin America and Japan changes, analyzes the main causes for such changes; and discusses the possible lines of action to promote desirable economic relationships and cooperation between Latin America and Japan. Trade between Latin America and Japan expanded steadily in the 1960s and well into the 1970s while exhibiting marked tendencies toward greater diversification. Keeping pace with the expansion in trading volumes, the composition of exported products from both Latin America and Japan became markedly more diverse. Japanese direct investment in Latin America was already significant as early as the second half of the 1950s, accounting for 30 percent of total Japanese overseas investments. Among Latin American exports to Japan, large increases were registered in feed grains, iron ore, and nonferrous metals. Shifts are also taking place in the Japanese industrial structure in response to the changing position of Japan’s economy in a new international division of labor.
