JAPANESE TRADE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20282, 17 April 1934, Page 5

JAPANESE TRADE.

Reasons for Low Prices of Manufactures. DEPRECIATED YEN. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON. April 16 Discussing Japanese trade. Mr Kuramatsu Murai, Consul-General for Japan in Australia and New Zealand, said that one of the primary facts governing the low price of Japanese goods was the fall in the exchange rate of the yen caused by the reimposition of the gold embargo in December, 1931. There had also been a powerful rationalisation movement in Japanese industries which brought about reforms. Deflation by increasing the purchasing power of the yen permitted some reduction in wages. Regarding allegations of dumping, he said: “I don’t deny there is competition and it is a fdct that we can sell our goods very cheaply, but this is only an abnormal phenomenon brought about by the world economic depression. It cannot last forever. There is no ground for the accusation that there is unfair competition ” He said that no important cases that Japanese were selling abroad at less than cost had been proved. There was any amount of evidence, too, that the accusations regarding labour conditions in Japan were groundless. If the world recovered from the economic depression the keen edge of Japanese competition would be removed. Stocks of raw materials were now haying to be imported at enhanced prices on account of the fall in exchange and this would increase the cost of production and reduce the competitive power.