JAPAN WATCH : Throwing Rice

Will the summer of 1991 be the season for a new bloom in U.S.-Japan trade relations? Long, difficult negotiations have finally yielded two agreements that will give American and other foreign companies greater access to Japanese construction and semiconductor markets. Now if Tokyo would only accept a similar agreement for rice.

The actual economic benefits of these market-opening measures may be minimal initially, but they are powerful symbols of the trade issues causing discord in the U.S.-Japan partnership.

Washington and Tokyo reached a tentative agreement Saturday to open up 17 more public-works construction projects to U.S. and other foreign firms. The number is less than the United States wanted, but it spares Tokyo sanctions that Washington had threatened to impose.

On Tuesday the two nations agreed to extend a 1986 semiconductor agreement that will increase foreign companies’ share of the Japanese chip market over five years. In exchange, $165 million in U.S. sanctions imposed on Japanese electronics imports in 1987 will be lifted.

Despite this progress, Tokyo’s ban on foreign rice continues, much to U.S. irritation. Japanese politicians, beholden to farmers, defend the policy on grounds of food security and the sanctity of rice. But if Washington had played by such a rule, the United States would never have tolerated Japanese auto imports. The almighty automobile, after all, has been at the heart of American life and industry. The lesson of openness is one facet of U.S. business that Tokyo has yet to master.