Word: japanism
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...1980s the U.S. had another paranoid, apoplectic fit about a rising Asian power. Twenty years ago, the bad guy wasn't China but an ascendant Japan, which was out to destroy the U.S. with its unfairly well built sedans, VCRs and microchips. The ballooning trade deficit with Japan was the hot-button political issue of the day, just as the yawning deficit with China is today. Japan was using "unfair" trade practices to disadvantage U.S. industry, many Americans believed. The Japanese were "manipulating" their currency, the yen, to make their exports extra cheap in the U.S. market, in the same...
...idea of just how similar the attacks on Japan were in the 1980s to those launched at China today, take a read of these comments by Lee Iacocca, made when he was chief at Chrysler (before the Germans bought it, then dumped it). He wrote in his autobiography that "our economic struggle with the Japanese is critical to our future" but that "the field where this game is being played is not level." He complained that "their currency manipulation is enough to bring you to your knees." The solution, he determined, was to "replace free trade with fair trade...
...Looking back at the U.S. reaction to Japan in the 1980s can help us gain some perspective on America's economic relationship with Asia today...
...First of all, the causes of the trade disputes then and now are very much alike. In both cases, Americans blamed other countries for problems they created themselves. In the late 1980s, Akio Morita, Sony's flamboyant co-founder, was one of the most outspoken about Japan's economic conflicts with America. He argued that all of the bickering about currency rates and corporate practices were somewhat irrelevant. The U.S. trade deficit, he wrote at the time, was "a result of commercial transactions based on preferences." Translation: Americans simply wanted to buy lots of things from Japan. The problem...
...Toyotas because they were better cars than many of the clunkers churned out by the Big Three. A few drivers refused to buy Japanese cars out of national loyalty, but apparently not enough Americans had such a strong devotion to Uncle Sam to significantly alter the trade balance with Japan...