U.S. Business Group Denounces Japan : Trade: Chamber of Commerce in Tokyo hints that it would back some retaliatory action by Washington.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan painted a grim picture Monday for Americans doing business in Japan and hinted that it would support some U.S. government retaliatory actions if the Japanese do not take steps to improve trade in certain areas.

In its “white paper” listing 34 trade-related complaints against Japan, the chamber urged the United States to take some action if Japanese governmental agencies do not increase their purchases of American computers. The report also said the U.S. government should consider measures to force open markets in Japan for U.S. semiconductors and U.S. air freight services and airline companies operating in Japan.

However, chamber President Richard J. Johannessen Jr., who heads Rockwell International, Japan, said he opposed setting specific market share goals for American products in Japan, such as a 20% target established by a 1986 agreement on semiconductors.

“We are all interested in results, but specific targets should be avoided,” Johannessen told a luncheon meeting of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.

The report reflected less optimistic attitudes about doing business in Japan than in a similar 1991 report in which the chamber said a majority of its members thought the climate for doing business was improving.

In the new report, the chamber said foreign firms still run up “against an ‘inner wall of resistance’ in the Japanese private sector” even after Washington announced solutions to specific trade disputes.

For example, the report cited continued barriers for foreign firms in several areas, including pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and forest products, despite agreements between the U.S. and Japanese governments to eliminate barriers.

For the first time, the report also cited barriers to imports of American-made carpets, and it scored the Japanese mass media for waging what it called “sensationalist” campaigns “to protect domestic agricultural interests” by disseminating “misleading information” about the safety of foreign food products.

In its most ambitious proposal, the chamber urged action to create comparable distribution access in Japan for Detroit’s Big Three auto makers as Japanese manufacturers have in the United States.