Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/11/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The issue of Japanese protectionism is indeed very complex and often misunderstood, as many recent posts on the LUG demonstrate. Academic studies that have been done on the subject in the 80s showed little significant difference between the U.S. and Japan in terms of openness to imports. The two countries simply protect different industries; in the U.S. relatively obscure industries like sugar and textiles are protected, while in Japan it was/is highly visible ones like cars. But when you look at the OVERALL degree of protection, the difference is much smaller than commonly thought. In the U.S. there is a common perception to the contrary, spurred on by whining American business leaders who failed in Japan and attributed their failure to Japanese protectionism. You do not hear many complaints from successful companies like Coca Cola or McDonalds. The real difference is between small countries and big countries. As predicted by classical trade theory, small countries tend to favor free trade (examples: Denmark, Netherlands) while big ones will seek to exploit their size and hence market power by restricting trade in selected commodities (examples: Japan, U.S.). Note that I am speaking of normal, capitalist economies here; of course you have countries affected by idiotic ideologies (e.g. China, India, most of the third world until recently) who have traditionally favored autarky for non-economic reasons. Nathan - -- Nathan Wajsman Overijse, Belgium General photo site: http://belgiangator.tripod.com/ Belgium photo site: http://members.xoom.com/wajsman/ Motorcycle site: http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/1704/