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Japan International Trade and Development Institutions
Japan is a member of the United Nations (UN), the IMF,
the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD--see Glossary),
and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT-- see Glossary).
It also participates in the international
organizations focusing on economic development, including
the World
Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
As a member of the IMF and World Bank, for example,
Japan
played a role in the effort during the 1980s to address
the
international debt crisis brought on by the inability of
certain
developing countries to service their foreign debts as raw
material
prices fell and their economies stagnated. As a member of
the IMF,
Japan also cooperates with other countries in moderating
the shortrun volatility of the yen and participates in discussions
on
strengthening the international monetary system.
Japan's membership in the OECD has constrained its
foreign
economic policy to some extent. When Japan joined the OECD
in 1966,
it was obliged to agree to OECD principles on capital
liberalization, an obligation that led Japan to begin the
process
of liberalizing its many tight controls on investment
flows into
and out of Japan. Japan is also a participant in the
OECD's
"gentlemen's agreement" on guidelines for
government-supported
export credits, which places a floor on interest rates and
other
terms for loans to developing countries from
government-sponsored
export-import banks.
GATT has provided the basic structure through which
Japan has
negotiated detailed international agreements on import and
export
policies. Although Japan had been a member of GATT since
1955, it
retained reservations to some GATT articles, permitting it
to keep
in place stiff quota restrictions until the early 1960s.
Japan took
its GATT obligations seriously, however, and a number of
American
disputes with Japan over its import barriers were
successfully
resolved by obtaining GATT rulings, with which Japan
complied.
Japan also negotiated bilaterally with countries on
economic
matters of mutual interest.
The international organization with the strongest
Japanese
presence has been the Asian Development Bank, the
multilateral
lending agency established in 1966 that made soft loans to
developing Asian countries. Japan and the United States
have had
the largest voting rights in the Asian Development Bank,
and Japan
has traditionally filled the presidency.
As Japan became a greater international financial power
in the
1980s, its role in financing these trade and development
institutions grew. Previously, the government had been a
quiet
participant in these organizations, but as its financial
role
increased, pressure to expand voting rights and play a
more active
policy role mounted. By the early 1990s, Japan's influence
and
voting rights in the World Bank and IMF had increased.
Data as of January 1994
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