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Japan Noncommunist Asia
The developing nations of Asia grew rapidly as
suppliers to and
buyers from Japan. In 1990 these sources (including South
Korea,
Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, and other
countries in
Southeast Asia) accounted for 28.8 percent of Japan's
exports, a
share well below the 34 percent value of 1960 but one that
had been
roughly constant since 1970. In 1990 developing Asian
countries
provided 23 percent of Japan's imports, a share that had
risen
slowly from 16 percent in 1970.
As a whole, Japan had run a surplus with noncommunist
Asia, and
this surplus rose quickly in the 1980s. From a minor
deficit in
1980 of US$841 million (mostly caused by a peak in the
value of oil
imports from Indonesia), Japan showed a surplus of nearly
US$3
billion with these countries in 1985 and of over US$28
billion in
1990. The shift was caused by the fall in the prices of
oil and
other raw materials that Japan imported from the region
and by the
rapid growth in Japanese exports as the region's economic
growth
continued at a high rate.
Indonesia and Malaysia both continued to show a trade
surplus
because of their heavy raw material exports to Japan.
However,
falling oil prices caused trade in both directions between
Japan
and Indonesia to decline in the 1980s. Trade similarly
declined
with the Philippines, owing to the political turmoil and
economic
contraction there in the 1980s.
South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore
constituted the
newly industrialized economies (NIEs) in Asia, and all
four
exhibited high economic growth during the 1970s and 1980s.
Like
Japan, they lacked many raw materials and mainly exported
manufactured goods. Their deficits with Japan increased
from 1980
to 1988, when the deficits of all four were sizeable. Over
the
1970s and 1980s, they evolved a pattern of importing
components
from Japan and exporting assembled products to the United
States.
Japan's direct investment in Asia also expanded with
the total
cumulative value reaching over US$32 billion by 1988.
Indonesia, at
US$9.8 billion in 1988, was the largest single location
for these
investments. As rapid as the growth of investment was,
however, it
did not keep pace with Japan's global investment, so Asia
's share
in total cumulative investment slipped, from 26.5 percent
in 1975
to 17.3 percent in 1988.
Data as of January 1994
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