Japan Trying to Ease the Way for Imports From U.S. : Trade: Despite stepped-up official efforts, some exporters complain that an ‘old boys network’ effectively keeps them out of its markets.
Never mind the plunging yen. Don’t worry about rising Japanese interest rates, says Minoru Masuda, the new chairman of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO).
While those factors might make exporting to Japan a bit more difficult, the Japanese government is expanding its aid to Americans and others interested in selling to the world’s second-largest consumer market, Masuda said during a recent visit to Los Angeles.
On April 1, Japan’s largest trade-promotion group increased its budget sevenfold to a total of $100 million. The money will pay for a variety of new services, including import-promotion centers and an expanded computer database.
“We hear Americans think that Japanese don’t want to import their goods and that Japan has certain barriers,” said Masuda, who has held various posts in the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, including vice minister of international affairs, since 1947. “The truth is, far from it. We were instructed to do everything we could to promote imports.”
Despite the government’s efforts, however, many Japanese firms are still beholden to an “old boys network” that effectively shuts out foreign products, said one Southern California businessman who just returned from a JETRO-sponsored trip to Japan.
“It was 110% from JETRO, but from the companies, absolutely nothing,” said Harold Martinez, who represented Able Industrial Products Inc., Tam Produce, Cumbre Inc. and Barron Transworld Services Inc.
Les Riddell of the Western Furnishings Manufacturers Assn. was more optimistic. After nine days and several meetings in Japan, he concluded that California furniture companies could succeed by providing high-quality goods, establishing a name and hooking up with a local Japanese partner.
JETRO’s expanded promotional efforts will include:
* Twenty new “import-promotion centers” throughout Japan. The centers will display foreign products and provide specialists to help local Japanese find American and foreign suppliers.
* An expanded computer database with quicker retrieval capacities that can match up foreign exporters and Japanese importers in 49 cities in Japan and JETRO’s 35 overseas offices.
* A program to send about 25 Japanese trade experts overseas for as long as a year. The experts will advise foreigners on how to fit their products to Japan and scour local markets for potential imports.
* Business missions to Japan for 200 foreign guests. The foreign business people will receive lectures on, say, the Japanese distribution system and consumer market. JETRO will also arrange appointments with potential Japanese importers as well as pay for travel costs.
The trade organization also plans to expand its buying missions to foreign countries.
The expanded effort comes amid rising acrimony over trade between the United States and Japan. It also comes as several U.S. exporters have begun to feel the pinch of the plummeting yen, which has increased the price of American goods in Japan by 20% over last year. At the same time, some analysts worry that the increase in Japanese interest rates will slow consumer spending.
In addition to the JETRO initiatives, the Japanese government is also offering tax incentives to firms to increase imports; low-interest loans for import-related businesses, such as foreign shippers, and a reduction in tariffs on 1,000 manufactured items.
“The Japanese side always comes here and looks for something new,” said Eiichi Nagata, executive director of JETRO’s Los Angeles office. The office, headed by Chief Executive Director Nobuo Kimura, maintains a staff of 27 to help local business people develop trade in Japan. “This time, why doesn’t the American side visit Japan and we will be waiting to set up appointments for sellers?”
But Martinez said most of the firms he met were unreceptive.
At Fujitsu Ltd. “they made it very clear to me, ‘Well, you’re here because JETRO sent you. Now what else? Why don’t you see our plant in San Diego?’ ” Martinez said.
Kokubu & Co., a leading food distributor, told him California oranges were too contaminated by soil pesticides for the Japanese market. Nissho Iwai Corp., a major trading firm, was “a nothing,” as was Nissan Motor Corp. Only the Japanese Automobile Trade Assn. showed any interest in his plan to develop consumer insurance packages, he said.
“I don’t care to go again, to be honest with you. The commitment is not there yet,” Martinez said.
Riddell said, however, that all four California furniture companies that attended a trade show in Japan last year made sales, inspiring his group to plan an export strategy there.
“That really fired us up,” Riddell said. “We make great furniture . . . and the question is, where can we sell it? Japan is the one that has everyone’s attention.”
