Japanese Manufacturers Asked to Increase Imports
Japan’s trade minister urged the chief executives of 302 leading manufacturers Tuesday to help reduce the country’s stubborn trade surplus by importing more foreign products, even if it means buying more goods from their own overseas operations.
Hajime Tamura, minister of international trade and industry, summoned the executives to a ministry auditorium and told them that he was pleased with the increase in imports of manufactured goods over the past year but warned that he was disappointed in projections for imports this year, a ministry official said.
He asked the companies to set more ambitious import goals, the official said, and recommended that they expand offshore manufacturing and buy more of their own products in a “reverse import” phenomenon that improves trade statistics.
38% Hike in Imports
Tamura’s appeal came as Japan’s economy is showing robust growth at the same time that its currency remains strong against the U.S. dollar, a situation that some critics say has not been fully reflected in the balance of trade. Officials are nervously watching the slow decline of Japan’s global trade surplus, which was $76 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31.
A survey conducted by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry showed that the 302 companies, including such concerns as Toyota Motor and Sony, imported $44.5 billion worth of manufactured products during the fiscal year, or 38% more than the previous year, according to Atsushi Kawashima, director of the ministry’s imports division.
Of that amount, about $1.6 billion, or 3.6%, represented goods that the companies imported directly from their own foreign subsidiaries or affiliates. MITI does not keep statistics for total imports from all Japanese-owned or Japanese-controlled manufacturing facilities overseas, but such reverse --imports are believed to play an increasingly important role in trade flows.
Protect Free Trade
The 302 companies in the ministry’s survey are expected to increase reverse imports by about 50% over the next year. Forecasts of their increase in total imports of manufactured goods, however, averaged only 17%, Kawashima said.
Tamura said he was not satisfied with this figure, although he did not set a specific target. As part of an educational campaign that does not carry the weight of official administrative guidance by the ministry, Tamura urged the executives to revise their plans to take advantage of the high yen.
“We want them to understand what the world expects of Japan,” Kawashima said. “Through the expansion of imports we have to protect the free trade system on which Japanese prosperity is based.”
Kawashima acknowledged that MITI is relying on reverse imports to help round out trade statistics. “If we didn’t take advantage of this kind of trade, the overall import figures would be substantially lower than what we’ve seen,” he said.
