Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

84 • FOREIGN EXCHANGE SPECIAL QUOTA SYSTEM
made when Japan became an International Monetary Fund (IMF) Article
8 nation at the end of March 1964, the Japanese government
abolished the foreign exchange allocation system and replaced it with
a new import quota system. Under this new system, Japan would not
allow the import of certain items not regulated by import quotas established
by MITI. Imports of crude oil and petroleum products were
subject to the foreign exchange allocation system prior to 1964, but
starting in that year, they became automatic approval items; that is,
items that could be imported freely under Japan’s foreign exchange
and trade management systems.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE SPECIAL QUOTA SYSTEM. The foreign
exchange special quota system went into effect on 20 August 1953. It
exists to prevent discriminative dealings in terms of commodities or
currencies in export by simplifying foreign exchange allocation procedures.
Regardless of the export item, exporters are allowed to use
10 percent of the foreign currencies earned from exports for importing
certain types of cargo that might otherwise face difficultly in being
awarded a foreign exchange allocation or payment for specific invisible
items, such as transportation expense, to go abroad.
Consequently, procedures for regulating foreign exchange allocation
were simplified. When Japan obtained the status of an Article Eight
nation in the IMF in March 1964, the foreign exchange special quota
system was abolished. Instead, Japan adopted an import quota system.
Specific items could not be imported unless such importation
was within import quotas set by the Ministry of International Trade
and Industry.
FUKOKU KYOHEI. See RICH NATION, STRONG ARMY.
FUKUZAWA, YUKICHI (1835–1901). From a low-ranking samurai
family on Kyushu Island, Yukichi Fukuzawa moved to Osaka to
study the Dutch language and Western science. He established his
own school in Edo (later Tokyo) in 1858, which emphasized English
after he realized Americans and British were more numerous than
Hollanders. In 1860, Fukuzawa was chosen to accompany the
Shogun’s Embassy to the United States. In 1862 and 1867, he traveled
to the United States and Europe on Tokugawa shogunate mis-