Japanese Foreign Trade Expansion

Report Outline
Movement for Restriction of Imports from Japan
Japan's Trade with the United States
Basic Factors in Rise of Japan's Exports
Low Labor Costs in Japanese Industry
Japanese Competition in Foreign Markets
Special Focus

Movement for Restriction of Imports from Japan

Chaotic Conditions in the American cotton textile industry, manifested in depressed prices, mill shutdowns, and drastic curtailments of production, are held by textile manufacturers to be largely due to the considerable increase during recent months in imports of cotton cloth from Japan. Demands by textile interests that higher tariff duties or import quotas, or both, be imposed on Japanese textiles have been reinforced with similar demands from manufacturers of pottery, woolens, and other products, and in the last few weeks a strong movement has developed to exclude Japanese products from the American market.

Present agitation in the United States for restraints on Japanese competition is symptomatic of the world-wide trade war that has been waged against Japan during the last three years as a result of the rapid expansion of Japan's export trade. Higher tariffs or import quotas have been established for Japanese goods since 1932 by Great Britain, Canada, India, China, Turkey, 11 Latin American states, and other countries. Similar action was taken this month in the Dutch East Indies, where Japanese trade with the Dutch colony in 1933 and 1934 exceeded the latter's trade with the Netherlands.

In the last two years, action has been taken by the United States to restrict imports of a number of Japanese products. In recent weeks, formal complaints have been filed under Section 3 (e) of the National Industrial Recovery Act against imports of Japanese bleached cotton goods, cotton fish nets, and velveteens. Under this section of the N. I. R. A., the President is authorized to restrict the importation of foreign goods when such imports are believed to constitute a threat to the maintenance of N. R. A. codes or agreements.