Technology and Japan-U.S. Relations

Abstract

Trade disputes are not a new phenomenon in Japan-U.S. relations. They started in the 1960s over the Japanese exportation of standardized technology goods such as steel, textiles, and black and white televisions to the United States, and continued in the 1970s over several commodities. Disputes in the 1980s started showing unprecedented characteristics. As Japanese technological sophistication and economic capabilities advanced, negotiations shifted from the exportation of standardized-technology goods to that of high-technology goods (semiconductors) and from the importation of agricultural goods to that of high-technology goods (supercomputers and satellites). Moreover, surprised with Japanese high-technology advancement — but simultaneously frustrated with the Japanese slow increase of U.S.-goods imports and technology transfer — the United States added unprecedented dimensions to negotiations. It concluded agreements with Japan to export military-related high-technology goods to the U.S., to transfer highly advanced technologies from Japan to the United States through cooperative research, and to transform the Japanese institutional structures. The United States efforts to transform institutional structures, called the Structural Impediment Initiatives (Sll), focused on such structural issues as over-pricing mechanisms, distribution systems, savings and investments, land policies, keiretsu (corporate groups), and exclusive business practices [15, 22, 44].