Abroad

Japan’s success in international markets at the expense of Western industrial nations has become an urgent topic of discussion between Japan and the West. Both in the European Common Market and in the United States, Japanese exports in a score of fields are increasingly blamed for recession and unemployment, and the specter of 1930s-style protectionism is being openly invoked. Few Western nations think that Japanese efforts so far at limiting exports or opening domestic markets to foreign goods have been serious or effective. A senior Japanese politician told the British, for example, that the solution was for Japanese investment in Britain to provide local employment. But, he was told, there are 25 Japanese factories in Britain already, the highest investment level in any country in the EEC, and last year the UK’s trade deficit with Japan rose by 10.5 per cent, to $2 billion. The French Trade Minister told the Japanese that a “customs happening” would befall Japanese goods in the French market if there were no action taken in respect to European trade grievances. The Japanese for their part would like to satisfy their trading partners without losing the competitive advantages they have worked so hard to establish since the end of the Second World War, but they do not want to play the role of scapegoat for the Western countries’ economic mistakes. Nevertheless it is clear that Japanese leaders of all viewpoints see the economic connection with the West as the bedrock of their policy and their prosperity. Their great fear is protectionism as a conditioned reaction. “Protectionism could exist for a while,” says respected political figure Masumi Esaki. “But it is just like opium—the wish for more would increase. This would only result in retaliation, making it a serious political issue.”

The use of heroin has jumped by an alarming two-thirds this year in France, largely among the unemployed, according to French narcotics-control officials. The type of heroin in commonest circulation is an inferior grade known as “number three,” less refined than that usually produced for export from the Golden Triangle, and mixed with such additives as caffeine. Police think that the new substance comes from recently opened laboratories in Thailand or Malaysia. Most arrests for use of and traffic in heroin have been made among the ranks of factory workers and the unemployed. In the first three months of this year, 664 unemployed were taken into custody, twice as many as in the same period last year. One hopeful sign is that the number of overdoses has fallen—36 ca$es of death from drugs in the first three months of 1982 compared to 41 for 1981.

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Japan’s success in international markets at the expense of Western industrial nations has become an urgent topic of discussion between Japan and the West. Both in the European Common Market and in the United States, Japanese exports in a score of fields are increasingly blamed for recession and unemployment, and the specter of 1930s-style protectionism is being openly invoked. Few Western nations think that Japanese efforts so far at limiting exports or opening domestic markets to foreign goods have been serious or effective. A senior Japanese politician told the British, for example, that the solution was for Japanese investment in Britain to provide local employment. But, he was told, there are 25 Japanese factories in Britain already, the highest investment level in any country in the EEC, and last year the UK’s trade deficit with Japan rose by 10.5 per cent, to $2 billion. The French Trade Minister told the Japanese that a “customs happening” would befall Japanese goods in the French market if there were no action taken in respect to European trade grievances. The Japanese for their part would like to satisfy their trading partners without losing the competitive advantages they have worked so hard to establish since the end of the Second World War, but they do not want to play the role of scapegoat for the Western countries’ economic mistakes. Nevertheless it is clear that Japanese leaders of all viewpoints see the economic connection with the West as the bedrock of their policy and their prosperity. Their great fear is protectionism as a conditioned reaction. “Protectionism could exist for a while,” says respected political figure Masumi Esaki. “But it is just like opium—the wish for more would increase. This would only result in retaliation, making it a serious political issue.”

The use of heroin has jumped by an alarming two-thirds this year in France, largely among the unemployed, according to French narcotics-control officials. The type of heroin in commonest circulation is an inferior grade known as “number three,” less refined than that usually produced for export from the Golden Triangle, and mixed with such additives as caffeine. Police think that the new substance comes from recently opened laboratories in Thailand or Malaysia. Most arrests for use of and traffic in heroin have been made among the ranks of factory workers and the unemployed. In the first three months of this year, 664 unemployed were taken into custody, twice as many as in the same period last year. One hopeful sign is that the number of overdoses has fallen—36 ca$es of death from drugs in the first three months of 1982 compared to 41 for 1981.