The article offers an analysis of the changes, during the past decade, in Japan’s foreign trade pattern. Special regard … raw materials and food in the country’s imports, has hit Japan particularly severely. …

Japan's high and increasing trade and current account surpluses have aroused in the other industrialized nations a … increasing imports from Japan. Japan's "unfair" conduct of its foreign trade is often cited as a reason for such a reaction. Is … this reproach justified? What can be done to avert the dangers to both Japan's foreign trade and the world economy caused …

It is now acknowledged even by US officials that Japan's recent efforts to liberalize trade have been remarkable. Our … author, who has recently published a book on "Japan's Options for the 1980s", argues that the continuing EEC complaints about … Japan's behaviour as a trading partner are unjustified: Japan is simply being made a scapegoat for the EEC's own failures. …