ABSTRACT
Shintano Abe, the political chief of Ministry of International Trade and Industry, was interviewed in 1982 by a leading American journal. It was at a time when there were forceful threats of retaliation against Japanese import restrictions on US goods. Israel's assistance to imports from certain black African states is prompted by the political consideration that this undermines the Arab boycott. The following illustrates completely selfless aid for imports that is neither a Public Relations (PR) exercise nor coloured by the wish to make political friends. Genuine tariff reductions and statutory import liberalisations have indeed occurred. But the PR tricks are unlikely to persuade politicians and businessmen in the OECD economies that Japan should not be penalised for exporting successfully. Mitsubishi Shoji's chairman was sent on tour in 1983 – not for the purpose of drumming up business for his company but in order to 'educate Europe' in selling to Japan.
