Letters to the Editor: 'Mythconceptions' About Japan
Nobody in Japan thinks of the country as No. 1. I think that's merely a myth created by U.S. journalism. As an economist from Japan working in Washington, D.C., I think the readers need some perspective from the other side of the Pacific.</br></br>Contrary to the Sept. 2 editorial "The Japan as No. 1 Myth," most workers in Japanese industries feel that Japan's export-oriented policy in the past has helped in raising their standard of living by securing enough job opportunities. Visit any plant of Toyota Motor Corp., and you will find in the parking lots better-equipped Toyota cars than those sold in the U.S., owned by even the youngest workers. And drive around Toyota City; the roads around are quite good, thanks in part to the contribution of local taxes that Toyota paid to surrounding municipalities.</br></br>It is correct, however, to mention that high prices of land and food products are causing a lot of problems in Japan. Many regulations, tariffs, and subsidies hurt cheaper food imports. But the question is, why is there not sufficient political leverage, or consumer willingness, to change the legal and policy environment related to this problem? One of the reasons is that the consumer movement is not well organized enough in Japan to give it a sufficient say in the political arena. On the other hand, farmers and small-scale distributors with vested interests are much more well organized and have substantial influence in the policy setting of the government.</br></br>In addition, most consumers living in cities have close relatives in farming regions. In 1950s and '60s, many people migrated from farming area to cities searching for jobs. So subsidies to the farming sector are a disguised form of social-security payments to the older population living in the farm regions that draw implicit approval from city dwellers.</br></br>The problem with distribution is related to the unemployment problem. Japan's distribution sector, in addition to the agricultural sector, is a reservoir of disguised unemployed people. There are people who cannot fit well in other, more efficient sectors, who have no other choice but hanging around mom-and-pop grocery stores. It is technically possible to create a straightlined, efficient distribution channel using nationwide chains of supermarkets such as those in the U.S. in just a short period of time, and consumers in Japan would definitely like it. But everyone in Japan knows that unemployment caused by creation of such a distribution sector would be substantial. And the rest of the Japanese population would have no other choice but to support those pushed out of the distribution channel. Paying higher prices for food and other basic commodities reluctantly, consumers in Japan are in fact supporting these disguised unemployed in the backward sector of the economy.