Editing 78-07-A2 (section)

= Japan II =

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=== Transcript ===
When we left the U.S. on our recent 'round-the-world trip the
matter of our unfavorable balance of trade with Japan was an almost
daily headline in the news. In a number of circles there was a
growing animosity toward Japan; charges of dumping product on our
market at less than cost; and demands for protectionism--tariffs,
quotas or outright bans on some imports.

Let me give you another view of this problem; how it looks from
the other side of the Pacific. I met with Japanese business leaders
who are also concerned about the trade imbalance even though it is in
their favor. They are worried about the voices demanding protectionism
and not from the selfish view that it will be directed against them
alone. They hear Japanese voices demanding protection against our
exports to Japan. Protectionism is a two-way street and they know that
once started it ends in a demand for retaliation.

Japanese industrialists believe in free trade and they are not
building their export supremacy on slave labor wages. While they have
not yet reached our own wage scale they are not far from it and their
wages are higher than in such other industrial nations as Britain,
France and West Germany.

Not too long ago if you'll recall, Japan sent a trade mission to
our country to buy several billion dollars worth of American goods to
help reduce our trade imbalance. But they said to me "Why should we
have to do that? Why aren't your business men over here trying to
sell us these things?" That's a pretty good question.

The truth is, they don't see us "Yankee Traders" trying as hard
as we once did, agressively seeking a market in Japan for our goods.
Let me give~ couple of examples I saw for myself. The Japanese, like
the English, drive on the left hand side of the road. Naturally their
automobiles are built with the steering wheel on the right. Now take
a look at those Toyotas, Datsuns and Hondas you see every day on our
streets. They were built with a left hand steering wheel for American
style driving. In Japan when you see a Japanese driving an American
car he does so with the inconvenience of, a steering wheel on the wrong
side for Japanese roads. By the way, it's also true in Hong Kong,
Singapore and Thailand. One of the Japanese business leaders said he
had asked our auto makers about that and they said it was too much
trouble to build cars with a right hand drive.

The Japanese make every effort to understand us and our American
ways. What effort have we made to understand the Japanese and their
way of doing things? Every graduate of a Japanese high school has had
six y ears of English. In our country our students will not only learn
no Japanese--a lot of them will have to take a college course called
"Bonehead English" so they can understand our own language.

The men I talked with have the friendliest feeling for us and
hope desperately that we can solve our energy problem by reducing our
dependence on imported oil. Japan is totally dependent on imported oil
which should make us skeptical of those who blame the Arabs for our
falling dollar.

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.
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=== Details ===
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<TR><TD WIDTH="150">Batch Number</TD><TD WIDTH="150">{{PAGENAME}}</TD></TR>
<TD>Production Date</TD><TD>05/15/[[Radio1978|1978]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Book/Page</TD><TD>[[Radio_Commentary_Books#Reagan:_In_His_Own_Hand|RihoH-287]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Audio</TD><TD></TD></TR>
<TD>Youtube?</TD><TD>No</TD></TR>
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===Added Notes===

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