ABSTRACT
Although this book does not seek to provide a definitive explanation of the American economic malaise, we disagree with the notion that the final cause, and therefore the cure, can be found in America’s trading partners. However, we do not also subscribe to the popular Japanese view that ‘Japan bashing’ is simply making a scapegoat out of Japan for internal policy issues. Simple mono-causal explanations should be avoided, but it is important to identify the different areas of problems in a problem-solving exercise. We do acknowledge that a relatively closed and export-oriented Japanese economy did contribute to industrial dislocation in the United States and subsequently to the destabilization of the international trading regime. In this, our purpose is to understand what was being done by the Japanese government to improve access to their market and contribute to regime stability. We do not suggest, however, that liberalization of the
Japanese economy can be the sole mechanism for balancing international trade. A liberal, open economy, by itself, cannot achieve much unless there is concomitant effort on the part of foreign manufacturers to penetrate the market and to modify their products to meet local conditions. American businesses must become more aggressive in their export strategies. We also do not suggest that Japan’s efforts in the macroeconomic sphere alone can ensure stability of the trading system. The US government cannot continue to insist that its policy choices were free of blame.
