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Japan Industries of the Future
The government remained actively involved in shaping
Japan's
economic future. Electronics were in the forefront in the
1980s,
but the importance of other industries appeared to be
rising by the
end of the decade. These industries included composite
materials,
industrial ceramics, space development (including
satellites and
launch vehicles), and superconductors (and products using
them,
such as magnetic levitation trains). Because of the
government's
strong belief that such industries would be critical for
the
nation's future, it will likely foster active
participation in
these industries by Japanese firms. As these industries
develop,
they are also likely to become the subject of trade
disputes
insofar as industrial policy concerns might limit imports
and
result in an export push that other nations would resent.
Yet
because Japan is at the technological frontier with other
nations
in these industries, Japanese development might produce
more
original technologies that other nations would be eager to
acquire,
perhaps creating greater mutual dependence.
* * *
Information and analysis in English on Japanese
international
economic relations are widely available. Excellent survey
articles
can be found in The Political Economy of Japan: Vol. 2,
The
International Dimension, edited by Takeshi Inoguchi
and Daniel
Okimoto. Bela Belassa and Marcus Noland's Japan in the
World
Economy discusses both macroeconomic and microeconomic
dimensions of Japan's foreign economic relations, and
Edward J.
Lincoln's Japan's Unequal Trade focuses on Japanese
import
behavior. Each year the Ministry of International Trade
and
Industry publishes a review of international economic
relations in
its Tsusho Hakusho (Trade White Paper), abridged
versions of
which are available in English translation.
Current information is also available in a variety of
specialized periodicals, including the Japan Economic
Journal, Tokyo Business Today, Far Eastern
Economic
Review, and Asian Wall Street Journal.
Detailed trade and other international data are
published in
both Japanese and English in the Bank of Japan's
Economic
Statistics Annual, and the Japan Statistical
Yearbook of
the Prime Minister's Office. Balance of payments data are
available
through the Bank of Japan's Balance of Payments
Monthly
(which also gives annual data), and trade data are
available in the
Japan Tariff Association's Summary Report, Trade of
Japan.
More detailed trade data are provided by the Japan Tariff
Association's Japan's Exports and Imports. (For
further
information and complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of January 1994
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