Japan's industries are mainly distributed along the Pacific coast. Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, etc. The Pacific coast is an excellent seaport with convenient maritime transportation, which is conducive to the development of foreign trade.
2. According to the statistics of Japan Customs, from June to June 2007, Japan's import and export trade volume was US$ 629.68 billion, an increase of 6.6% over the same period of last year. Among them, the export was 336.26 billion US dollars, an increase of 8.8%; Imports reached US$ 293.42 billion, up by 4.3%. The trade surplus was US$ 42.83 billion, up by 54.7%. In the same period, Japan's trade surplus with the United States remained the largest, at $34.29 billion. However, due to the decline in Japanese exports to the United States, Japan's trade surplus with the United States decreased by 6.0% compared with the same period last year. Judging from the situation in each quarter, Japan's exports in the second quarter were US$ 65.438+06.950 billion, an increase of 654.38+0.6% over the previous quarter. Imports 1486 1 billion USD, up 2.6% from the previous month.
(1) Composition of import and export markets
From June to June 2007, Japan's main import and export areas were Asia, NAFTA and EU 15 countries, accounting for 87.8% of Japan's total import and export. Among them, Japan's exports to Asia and the European Union grew rapidly, with export growth rates of 1 1.3% and 8.8% respectively. Japan's exports to NAFTA decreased by 0.2%, with an export value of US$ 79.75 billion. Among them, automobiles and electromechanical products that exported the most to NAFTA declined slightly. From June to June, Japan's imports from these three regions were US$ 654.38+079.76 billion, US$ 465.438+08 billion and US$ 3065.438+09 billion, respectively, with year-on-year increases of 2.4%, 4.3% and 5.4%.
From the perspective of exporting countries, the United States is still Japan's largest exporter. The slowdown of the real estate market, the subprime mortgage problem and the decline of retail consumption have affected the economic growth and import increase of the United States, and also had a certain negative impact on Japan's exports to the United States. From June to June, 65,438, Japan's exports to the United States reached 69.24 billion US dollars, down 1%. The share of the United States in Japan's export market continued to drop to 20.6%, down two percentage points from the same period last year. China and South Korea are the second and third largest export markets. From June to June, Japan's exports to the two countries were $50 1.8 billion and $26.34 billion, respectively, accounting for 1.4% and 7.8% of its total exports, up 1.7% and 7.3% respectively. Driven by the sharp increase in automobile exports, in the first half of 2007, Japan's exports to Russia reached US$ 4.79 billion, a sharp increase of 54.2%. In the second quarter, Japan's exports to the Netherlands continued to grow rapidly. From June to June, Japan's exports to the Netherlands reached US$ 8,965.438 billion, an increase of 29.2%. Among Japan's former 15 export trading partners, except the United States, Japan's exports to China, Taiwan Province Province and Canada also declined slightly, by 2.2% and 2.6% respectively.
China and the United States are Japan's first and second largest import markets. From June to June, Japan imported US$ 60.97 billion and US$ 34.95 billion respectively, accounting for 20.8% and 65.438+065.438+0.9% of its total imports. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates continue to maintain Japan's position as the third and fourth largest import source countries. However, due to the slight decline in the quantity and price of Japanese crude oil imports, the growth rate of Japanese imports from these two countries has fallen sharply. Among them, the import volume from Saudi Arabia decreased by 15.7%, while the import growth rate in the same period last year was 52.5%. Imports from the United Arab Emirates only increased by 1.0%, in sharp contrast to the rapid growth of 43.4% in the same period last year. Among Japan's former 15 trading partners, Japan's imports from South Korea, Chinese mainland, Taiwan Province Province of China, Germany and Iran declined slightly.
(2) Composition of import and export products
Vehicles and their accessories (HS87), machinery and equipment (HS84) and electrical and electronic products (HS85) are the main export products of Japan, accounting for 60.9% of Japan's total export from June to June 2007.
In the first half of 2007, Japan exported $74.95 billion of automobiles and their accessories, accounting for 22.3% of its total exports, up11%year-on-year. According to the HS4-digit code, manned motor vehicle (HS8703) is the largest export product, with an export value of US$ 50.38 billion, up 12.9% year-on-year. The United States is still the main export destination of this product, accounting for 4 1.6% of Japan's total export of this product, which is 4.3 percentage points lower than the same period last year. It is worth noting that Japan's exploration of the Russian market has achieved remarkable results. From June to June, Japan exported 3.42 billion US dollars of manned motor vehicles to Russia, an increase of 60.9%. Russia has become the second largest importer of manned motor vehicles in Japan.
From June to June, 65438, Japan exported 67.20 billion US dollars of machinery and equipment, accounting for 20.0% of its total exports, up 9. 1% year-on-year. Among them, the export growth of printing machine and auxiliary machinery (HS8443) is very obvious, with an export value of US$ 8.26 billion, a substantial increase of 84 1.5%. In the same period, the export value of electrical and electronic products (HS85) was US$ 62.65 billion, accounting for 18.6% of its total export value, with an increase of 4.7%. The main exporters of Japanese products are China and the United States, among which the export to China keeps a rapid growth, but the export to the United States is gradually declining. From the perspective of specific commodities, semiconductors; Video and audio equipment and their components are the most exported categories of electrical and electronic products in Japan, accounting for nearly half of the total export of such products. Among the semiconductor products, integrated circuits and microelectronic components (HS8542) and semiconductor devices (HS854 1) are the most exported, with the export value of US$ 65.438+0.592 billion and US$ 4.99 billion in the first half of the year, up by 654.38+04.4% and 265.438+0% respectively, and the products are mainly sold to Asia. From June to June, 65438, the export of audio-visual equipment and its parts dropped sharply, mainly to the United States. Among them, the exports of video and audio transmission equipment (HS8525), video and audio transmission equipment parts (HS8529) and TV receivers (HS8528) were US$ 5.29 billion, US$ 4.30 billion and US$ 654.38+0.43 billion, respectively, down 9.6%, 2654.38+0.5% and 6544.3% year-on-year.
Mineral products (HS25-27) and electromechanical products (HS84-85) are the main categories of Japanese imported products. In June-June 2007, the total import value of these two products accounted for 5 1.6% of Japan's total import value, and the import value was 88,765.438 billion US dollars and 62.670 billion US dollars respectively. Imports of chemical industry and related products (HS28-38) and metals and products (HS72-83) are also relatively large. In June, the imports were1947 million US dollars and1907 million US dollars respectively, accounting for 6.6% and 6.5% of Japan's total imports respectively.
In terms of specific products, 65438 June-June crude oil (HS2709) is still the largest imported product in Japan, accounting for 15.3% of Japan's total imports. However, both import volume and import price declined slightly, resulting in a 7.9% decline in crude oil imports. During the period of 1-6, the import sources of Japanese crude oil also changed. The crude oil imported from Russia was1.40 billion US dollars, while the import volume in the same period last year was zero, making Russia the eighth largest source country of Japanese crude oil imports. Among the electromechanical products, the most imported are integrated circuits and microelectronic components (HS8542) and automatic data processing equipment and its components (HS847 1). In the first half of the year, imports were US$ 654.38+0.028 billion and US$ 6.63 billion respectively, down by 2. 1% and 30.3% respectively. The import of wired telephone and telegraph equipment (HS85 17) increased the most, with the import value of $44 1 billion, an increase of 293.3%.
3. The particularity of Japan's foreign trade structure and the adjustment of trade policy.
This paper holds that the effective measures taken by the Japanese government are the main reason why Japan's foreign trade still maintains a high growth rate in the long-term appreciation of the yen. Therefore, it is necessary for us to know what policies and measures the Japanese government has taken to promote the development of foreign trade.
1. Continue to vigorously promote industrial policies to promote exports. From the Second World War to the 1970s, Japan's economy was in the stage of catching up with the developed countries in Europe and America, and the industrial policy closely related to the strategy of "building a country through trade" was one of the important experiences of Japan's economic catching up. In the process of Japan's transformation from external demand-oriented to domestic demand-oriented, even under the condition of long-term economic stagnation in the 1990s, it did not give up its consistent industrial policy. Since the mid-1970s, Japanese political, scientific, financial and economic circles have conducted extensive discussions on the development prospects and outlets of Japan's economy and science and technology, and gradually formed a new strategy of "building the country through science and technology". On the one hand, the equipment and products of steel, nonferrous metals, shipbuilding, petrochemical, fiber, paper-making and other industries that consume more energy are updated; On the other hand, electronics, energy, life sciences, new materials, the development of the universe and oceans have been given priority support, and the production and export of products in these industries have been vigorously promoted. Now it seems to have achieved a lot. Today, Japan uses precision ceramics for automobile engines, carbon fibers for rockets and airplanes, and produces robots, office automation machines and new materials. Biotechnology industries such as medicine, agriculture, food and energy; Information industry products such as game software, semiconductors and large-scale integrated circuits, as well as audio-visual products, still maintain the leading position in the world, and the export volume has also increased steadily. For example, Japan has been the largest exporter of robots for many years, and its advantage in this industry even exceeds that of the United States.
2. Accelerate the internationalization of the yen to offset the adverse effects of the appreciation of the yen. The process of internationalization of the Japanese yen began as early as the 1960s, and its main symbol was that 1964 International Monetary Fund officially became an "eighth member" and began to undertake the obligation of free convertibility of the Japanese yen. After the 1970s, the process of internationalization of the Japanese yen took the crisis of the US dollar as the international central currency as the main background. 1978 relax foreign exchange control, 1980 implement new foreign exchange management regulations, 198 1 amend the new banking law. 1984 in may, Japan published the present situation and prospect of financial liberalization and internationalization of the yen. The so-called financial liberalization refers to the opening of Japan's domestic financial market and European yen market and the liberalization of interest rates. The internationalization of the yen refers to the widespread use of the yen in international transactions, making the yen a fully convertible international reserve currency. Since then, in order to promote the internationalization of the Japanese yen, the Japanese government has taken many measures, such as expanding the provision of Japanese yen loans to foreign countries, using Japanese yen more widely as the currency of settlement and payment in trade, absorbing European yen loans, and relaxing the conditions for issuing European yen bonds. The above measures have continuously improved the internationalization of the yen. For example, from 1975 to 1985, the proportion of Japanese yen in the world's official foreign exchange reserves rose from 0.5% to 7.6%, and the settlement ratio of Japanese yen in Japan's export trade reached 36% in 1997, which means that 36% of Japan's export trade is not affected by exchange rate fluctuations. 1 April 9981day, Japan implemented the new foreign exchange law and foreign trade law. Companies and individuals can freely open US dollar accounts in overseas Japanese banks, store US dollars and make purchases in US dollars at home. Nowadays, the yen has become an important convertible currency, and the impact of the fluctuation of the yen exchange rate on its foreign trade has been greatly reduced.
3. Vigorously develop complementary foreign investment. After the appreciation of the yen, Japan's foreign direct investment began to increase. In 1970, Japan's total foreign direct investment was only $900 million, exceeding $3 billion in 1973, and then increasing year by year, reaching about $9 billion in 198 1 year, and exceeding 100 billion in/984. After the 1985 Plaza Agreement, Japan's foreign direct investment increased sharply. During the three years from 1986 to 1988, the accumulated foreign investment102.8 billion US dollars exceeded the accumulated foreign investment in the 35 years after the war1951-kloc-0/985. 1989, Japan's foreign direct investment was $4.4/kloc-0.0 billion, exceeding $36.8 billion and $35.2 billion from Britain, ranking first in the world for the first time. In 200 1 year, Japan's total foreign direct investment was $32.5 billion (at the average exchange rate). From the perspective of investment structure, Japan's foreign investment is mainly concentrated in manufacturing, and the industries with the largest investment scale, such as electricity, automobiles, chemistry, steel and nonferrous metals, account for 64% of its foreign manufacturing investment. The service industry does not occupy a dominant position in Japan's foreign investment, which is mainly limited to financial insurance, commercial services and real estate. Judging from the composition of investment areas, Japan's foreign investment is mainly developed countries, followed by the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Germany and France. Investment in developing countries is mainly concentrated in East Asia, including China, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, and investment in Cayman Islands and Panama is relatively high. A remarkable feature of Japan's foreign investment is its strong complementarity with foreign trade. For example, Japan's investment in the United States and European countries is mainly to avoid the trade barriers of NAF- TA and the European Union, while Japan's investment in East Asian countries is mainly to reduce production costs. In other words, Japan transferred a part of its export capacity to other East Asian countries, used cheap industrial land and labor in these countries to form production capacity, and then exported it to European and American countries. Therefore, from a global perspective, Japan's export capacity greatly exceeds the amount of international trade statistics. Moreover, Japan's investment in East Asian countries is mainly labor-intensive manufacturing, which makes these countries' demand for Japanese capital-intensive capital goods increase continuously, and Japan's export growth can be maintained.
4. Implement the strategic import protection policy. According to statistics, Japan's tariff and direct non-tariff barrier measures are not higher than those of similar developed countries, but Japan's market protection is very high, mainly reflected in indirect non-tariff barrier measures and industrial policies, commodity standards, government procurement and so on. A typical example is the use of technical barriers to trade to restrict imports. According to the statistics of the World Trade Organization, from the early 1980s to the establishment of the World Trade Organization 1994, the number of technical barriers that Japan notified GATT to implement was 508, while that of the United States was 500, that of the European Union countries was 226 and that of Australia was 54. From 1995 to 200 1, the number of technical barriers notified by Japan is 265, that of the United States is 2 15, that of the European Union is19, and that of Australia is 106. Therefore, Japan has adopted the most technical barriers to trade in the world, and these measures have played an important role in reducing imports. As far as the protection field is concerned, it mainly focuses on agricultural products, medicines, biotechnology products, textiles and clothing, leather and so on. As far as agriculture is concerned, Japan has always adopted a high protection policy for agriculture since World War II, and for this reason, several trade frictions have occurred with the United States, and agricultural product trade disputes with China have also begun to appear. In addition, Japan has set up many obstacles for import in customs clearance procedures, government procurement, animal and plant inspection and quarantine, product standards, service trade and so on. Because Japan's strategic import trade protection policy has been implemented for a long time, the United States has conducted many negotiations with it, but the results are not obvious. We should seriously study and learn from Japan's experience in this regard.