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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stitch who wrote (793)	1/14/1998 6:12:00 PM
From: Geoff Nunn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9980

Stitch, Thanks for taking my question re whether/why Japan has objections to a weaker yen. I think the answer you gave that Japan doesn't wish to inflame trade-balance tensions with the U.S. has to be right. What puzzles me is why the same sensitivity on the trade-balance issue isn't shown when Japan is asked to reduce import barriers. We can all remember how Japan fought tenaciously to keep foreign apples, rice, beef, even skis, out of its markets. Special- interest influences were undoubtedly a factor here, and were perhaps the most important. Nonetheless, something else also seems to be going on that I don't pretend to understand. When the Japanese are asked to justify their protectionism, they sometimes offer reasons which are quite preposterous. Example: Why was it necessary to keep out foreign-made skis? Because Japan has a different kind of snow! (I'm not making this up). Geoff