The Open Policy Of Economic Protection In Japan

An important feature of Japan's post-war economic development is to give full play to the government's macroeconomic regulation and control capability and implement the national economic war on the basis of respecting the western free economic concept.

In view of the fact that Japan is still an agricultural country with a weak industrial foundation at the beginning of the liberalization of trade, the Japanese government believes that the emerging industries in backward countries can not be completely dependent on market regulation and the continuous accumulation of enterprises, just like those in Europe and the United States. In the face of powerful multinational corporations, the "self-help efforts" of individual enterprises are always limited. It is necessary for the government to strengthen macroeconomic regulation of the whole economy and to concentrate limited social resources in some limited fields.

To this end, the government has adopted a series of coordination and intervention measures to guide the market activities of various sectors of the national economy, integrating the national economic development and resource allocation into the government's economic development plan.

For this reason, the government has formulated a series of development plans according to the economic development level of different periods, such as the national income doubling plan in 60s, the Japanese Islands redevelopment plan in 70s and so on.

In order to ensure the implementation of these plans from the organization, the Japanese government has set up a "Policy Review Conference" which covers almost all strategic industries. The members of the policy deliberations consist of the government, the business sector and the academia. The deliberations will formulate the future strategic industry, the specific implementation plan and the policies to be adopted according to the national development plan. The consensus formed will be released to the public so that a consensus can be reached between the "production, government and learning" on the common interests of the country.

On the basis of this consensus, the government carries out unified allocation of resources across the country through indirect finance, financial investment and financing and administrative guidance, and then concentrates it on some key enterprises.

In order to coordinate government actions, universities and research departments concentrate on strengthening applied research, and the results of research are pferred to enterprises.

The integration of production, government and learning under the guidance of the government has greatly promoted the revitalization of the Japanese economy and the development of some industries.

Because of this, today, some big Japanese enterprises are still obsessed with the integration of production, government and learning in the global economic integration competition.

For this reason, Japan has carried out a thorough and comprehensive reform of the original tariff system since 1961.

First of all, in order to coordinate with the GATT tariff system and facilitate international comparison and trade statistics, Japan boldly changed the original import tax system and adopted the international common tariff classification.

Secondly, the "waterfall" tariff structure was established.

In addition, in order to flexibly and effectively play the function of tariff protection, the Japanese government has established a set of special tariff system including emergency tariff, tariff adjustment, temporary tariff, mixed tariff and retaliatory tariff in order to flexibly and effectively play the function of tariff protection. In order to make up for the deficiency of general tariffs in protecting domestic industry, such as the emergency tariff system, Japan will adopt temporary emergency tariff measures to protect large quantities of cheap goods entering the domestic market and causing serious harm to similar industries in China. Imposing low or zero nominal tariffs on raw materials and primary products, as the processing goes deeper, the nominal tariff rate is higher and higher.

Through this flexible and diversified tariff system, the upgrading and improvement of domestic industrial structure has been effectively protected, and the international competitiveness of deep-processing industries has been strengthened.

Facing the situation of small scale, insufficient financial strength and excessive competition, Japan has made a large-scale reorganization of the industrial organization structure, focusing on the merger and reorganization of enterprises, and the realization of capital concentration and the establishment of economies of scale.

Under the principle of "economic rationality", the government has implemented the industrial organization policy through legislation, such as "electronic industrialization" and "petroleum industrialization".

Under the strong policy of the government, thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises have been incorporated into the "series" of big monopolies and pformed into the "satellite factories" and "coexistence factories" of large enterprises. The overall scale of large enterprise groups has also grown rapidly, and has become a new force in the rapid rise of the Japanese economy.

In order to prevent large enterprises from simply annexing or squeezing out small and medium-sized enterprises, the government encourages enterprises to form vertical combinations in the form of parent subsidiary company system according to their operational needs such as production and sales relations. On this basis, the government also supports small and medium-sized enterprises to adapt to the liberalization of industrial system as soon as possible. First, the basic law of small and medium enterprises is formulated to ensure the healthy development of SMEs. Second, to encourage large enterprises to provide equipment, to send technicians or even managers to improve the technology and management level of SMEs. Third, the government set up special institutions and funds to help small and medium-sized enterprises.

With the support of these measures, a large number of emerging enterprise groups such as SONY, Panasonic and Honda have risen rapidly and become internationally competitive multinational enterprises through competition.

In the process of promoting trade liberalization, Japan did not deliberately slow down the process of liberalization, nor pursued the trade liberalization unilaterally. Instead, it pursued trade liberalization unilaterally, but on the basis of taking full account of national conditions and national strength, and steadily pushing forward the process of trade and capital liberalization according to priorities.

Considering Japan's shortage of raw materials and its dependence on imports, Japan first opened up the import raw material market in 1961, so that the liberalization rate increased from 26% in 1959 to 62%. Then, in 1962, the international competitiveness of food processing, textile and light industry machinery industries was gradually opened, and the trade liberalization rate reached 93% in 1964. Finally, some strategic industries such as electronics, automobiles, petrochemicals and other promising industries were gradually opened up, and long-term protection measures for industries that needed protection and safety related protection were adopted.

This progressive trade strategy has many advantages. Its biggest advantage is that it has dispersed the risk of trade liberalization and postponed the opening schedule of strategic industries, so that the state can protect the strategic industry of domestic development with continuous opening up, and enjoy the greatest overall economic benefits while fully enjoying the benefits of trade liberalization.

For example, in the early postwar period, there was a big gap between Japan's automobile and computer industry compared with those in Europe and the United States. Opening up would make it possible for Japan's automobile and computer enterprises to be absorbed by multinational companies. Under such circumstances, Japan did not simply open its domestic market in accordance with the "static international comparative advantage", abandon the development of the national automobile and computer industry, but foster the domestic automobile and computer industry according to the "dynamic international division of labor", and try every means to postpone their trade liberalization schedule until they have international competitiveness.

In the early 1960s, the automotive and computer industries were not included in the liberalization department, but some adjustments were made in the quota. Until the vast majority of goods were liberalized in October 1965, the Japanese government abolished the restrictions on finished cars. However, import quota and tariff protection were still imposed on the import of automobile engines. In 1971, Japan completely opened the capital market of the automobile industry. At that time, the automobile industry in Japan had already had strong international competitiveness. The computer industry did not implement import and export liberalization until 1972 16 years after entering the customs.

It is this safe trade liberalization policy that sets aside time and space for the growth of the Japanese automobile and computer industry, thus promoting the rapid development of the automotive and computer industries in the future, making Japan a world's "automobile kingdom" and "computer kingdom".

To this end, in order to protect the domestic market, Japan has strengthened non-tariff barriers in order to protect its domestic market.

On the specific application, first of all, we should use the relevant provisions of GATT and adopt direct restriction to protect "immature industries" and industries that do not have international competitiveness in China.

Secondly, under the premise of not violating the provisions of GATT, it has adopted measures such as issuing import licences, improving technical safety standards, strengthening the binding function of urban planning, giving full play to the coordinating functions of trade associations, and so on, so as to restrict the entry of foreign goods.

For example, the retail market in Japan is open to foreign enterprises on the surface. However, due to the provisions of the large-scale retail shop law, it is necessary to reach agreement on the business area, business hours and other related retail businesses with the surrounding retail stores, and it will take several years to form a formal plan to start business. In addition, the sales system in the circulation field is complex, making it difficult for foreign enterprises to enter the Japanese market.

For example, in the late 1960s, in order to protect the domestic computer market, Japan formulated the "national product priority policy", strictly stipulating that the government and its subsidiary bodies must give priority to the use of domestic products when choosing computers.

In addition to the mandatory provisions of the Japanese government, many of these non-tariff barriers are based on the coordination of industry associations and the habits of consumers.