To Japanese, Dispute With U.S. Is Harrowing, Unsettling
Plans by the United States to slap punitive duties on some electronics goods from Japan have demonstrated again that the perception gap between the two countries can be as wide as the Pacific Ocean.</br></br>At a time when U.S. officials are complaining that Japan sabotages trade agreements, the Japanese feel that no reasonable person can deny that they have made costly sacrifices in the past two years to help improve America's poor trade condition.</br></br>The fact that Japan's dollar surplus with the United States is not declining on annual terms-it set another record, $59 billion, in 1986-is not seen here as proof of bad faith. Patterns in world trade change at a glacial pace, the Japanese say, and Americans who show some patience will see the figure go down a bit in 1987.</br></br>Measured in volume rather than dollars, exports did fall a bit in 1986. "The change has already started," said Michihiko Kunihiro, chief of the Japanese cabinet's committee on external affairs. "But the political atmosphere makes people blind to it." He promises more efforts from Japan.</br></br>The Japanese still wince at the notion that they are flooding the world with exports. Every business transaction has two sides, after all. For every Toyota shipped to the United States by a Japanese, there is an American who wants to buy it.