'American Train' Will Toot Its Way Through Japan, Hawking U.S. Goods
TOKYO -- What's Japan doing these days about its whopping $52 billion annual trade surplus with the U.S.?</br></br>Well, on July 4, a Japanese group headed by some of the nation's most-powerful men plans to send a 12-car, red-white-and-blue "American Train" from one end of Japan to the other, hawking U.S. goods along the way.</br></br>It is one of the wackier attempts to ease the trade problem to come down the tracks in some time. The cars will be decorated with themes that are supposed to typify the U.S.: fast food, fantasy, special effects/horror and outer space. All this won't come cheap. A U.S. company can rent a train car for a mere $2.5 million a year.</br></br>Though most U.S. companies that signed on for the ride are excited about the train, nobody thinks it will have a lasting impact on the real problem facing would-be exporters to Japan: getting U.S. goods into its complex distribution system.</br></br>This isn't the first time Japan has come up with superficial ways to attack the trade surplus. In 1985, Yasuhiro Nakasone, who was prime minister at the time, tried to command each Japanese to buy $100 of foreign goods. Bureaucrats drew up lists of suggested products, such as fondue pots and oven thermometers.