JAPANESE TRADE.

Northern Advocate, 30 June 1917, Page 1

JAPANESE TRADE.

QUALITY OF EXPORTS. NUMEROUS COMPLAINTS. In the '' Japanese Times'' of recent ; date there appeared an article on ; "Foreign Buyers and Japan," of considerable interest to New Zealand purchasers of Japanese goods. The I article, which was written by M. Naka- I yama, expert of the Commercial \ Museum of the Japanese Department of Agriculture and Commerce, Tokio, is as follows: — It is said by many foreign buyers of goods from Japan that "the Japanese lack the sense of business morality, and the things they supply are not worth the prices paid for them." This denunciation of Japanese products has been especially marked since the outbreak of the present war, which no doubt brought those products more than ever before upon the world's markets, where they were required to take the place of goods produced in European countries. Complaints are pouring into the Japanese Government even from traders in far-away Europe. There certainly are means to deal with the causes of these unfortunate complaints of foreign buyers regarding the quality of Japanese exports. This is a problem in Japanese foreign trade and its future expansion which cannot \ c allowed to pass unnoticed. We must study it carefully and discover a proper method of solving the problem. To do this, let us first examine wherein lie some of the chief causes of complaint. (1) It is well-known that German wirepullers behind the scenes have been very active. Deprived of their previous commercial hold on markets almost everywhere in the outside world, there are reasons to believe that vindictive Germans are busily engaged in circulating injurious reports, with the object of obstructing the expansion of Japanese trade, as well as that of the other Allies, by spreading false stories broadcast. Wo must watchfully guard ourselves against such propaganda, if we desire to counteract its ill effects. (2) The attention of foreign buyers who come to Japan must be directed to the fact that, in a large measure, they themselves are responsible for the failure to obtain satisfactory,, results from their transactions. Instances ars not wanting of cases in which, in connection with these unnecessary errors, a lack of knowledge of foreign 'buyers with regard to the actual conditions and system of the business world in Japan is a great factor. A foreigner comes here and stays, let us suppose, at a. hotel in Tokio. Learning of this j from the newspapers, a number of questionable merchants crowd upon him, and, in their eagerness to obtain profits, offer him anything -which may look attractive. Contracts are signed. The foreigner returns to his country. The inevitable disillusionment comes. Then complaints. There are rogues in Japan, ' as in every country, to whom, in their business dealings, the moral sense of honesty is a negligible quantity. But it is not fair to judge the morality of a nation from the actions of a few business parasites. (3) Westerners arc very slow in getting rid of their preconception that the Japanese arc an inferior people, with little or no initiative genius in Ladies need not trouble with chilblains or chapped hands if they will U9O Nazol Ointment regularly during the cold weather,

the manufacture of modem commer- H cial articles, and therefore they may B think that what the Japanese produce H is far inferior in quality to what they themselves produce. In passing their i opinion upon articles, they usually ask i first if they were made in Japan; if H so, then the goods run the risk of being stamped with the mark of inI feriority. The Japanese may perI haps lack originality; but cannot one -: make a perfectly good article without i having been its inventor or origin, ator? Buyers will obtain more satisfaction by exercising more care in selecting trustworthy houses with whom to -deal than by finding fault with the actions of untrustworthy houses. Of course, it must be admitted that Japanese industry, as exercised in modern commercial manufactures, is as yet in an initial stage, and Japan's industrial system is not yet as higbly organised or developed as that ot ■Western countries. Owing to this immaturity of industrial development Japanese traders are liable to find themselves in dimcult positions when orders arrive to rapidly. The European war caused an enormous quantity of orders to be placed with our traders and manufacturers, and many of them were at a loss to know what to do. There have been not a few instances when, finding themselves anable to handle a large order, whicli promised an equally large profit, they have been compelled to decline the transaction. The loss of big business of this kind is pinching us. Japan's industry is developing from the domestic system to the larger scale of the factory system. The coming ten years will no doubt see the industrial system of Japan revolutionised.