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

258 • VOLUNTARY EXPORT RESTRAINT
He arrived in Nagasaki in 1859 as one of the first missionaries in Japan
and taught English and Dutch. He helped arrange for several young
Japanese men to attend Rutgers College in New Jersey. He was hired
by the Meiji government in 1869 as a yatoi and worked for the government
for several years. See also GRIFFIS, WILLIAM ELLIOT.
VOLUNTARY EXPORT RESTRAINT. When exports of specific
Japanese items suddenly increased or their market share rapidly expanded,
trade friction between Japan and other countries was a consequence
of this. Voluntary export restraint was Japan’s response to
avoid such trade friction with various countries.
For example, in May 1981, the Japanese automobile industry imposed
voluntary restraint on its exports to the United States for three
years, on the assumption that U.S. automobile manufacturers would
make great efforts to revitalize themselves. Because of this restraint,
automobile exports to the United States did not surpass 1,690,000 cars
in the fiscal years of 1981 and 1982. In the fiscal year of 1981, the total
amount of automobile exports declined by 6.8 percent over the previous
year. This voluntary export restraint tentatively resolved trade
friction concerning automobiles between Japan and the United States.
This example indicates that Japan’s voluntary export restraint measures
prevent its trade counterparts from taking import-restriction measures.
Japan carried out major voluntary export restraints in the steel industry
between 1972 and 1974, in the automobile industry between 1981 and
1984, and in the machine tool industry between 1987 and 1993. Japan’s
voluntary export restraint is not a fundamental solution to Japan’s trade
friction with other countries, but an extraordinary and temporary measure
that, in the long run, maintains and develops further liberal freetrade
principles. See also U.S.–JAPAN TRADE CONFLICTS.
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WAKAMATSU COLONY (ALSO KNOWN AS AIZU COLONY,
AIZU–WAKAMATSU COLONY). After Aizu was defeated supporting
the Tokugawa shogunate against the Satsuma and Choshuled
forces in late 1868, approximately 30 Japanese from the region
traveled to Coloma, California, to establish a tea and silk farm. Most