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Exchanging commodities across the world's largest ocean can be a tricky proposition. You win some, you lose some. Here's a run-down of how the Golden State fares in the increasingly important business of Asian give and take.
Japan
During the Depression-era years before World War II, we used to send our junk metal to Japan. Japan was short on resources and the United States was long on international goodwill.
We had ingenious ways of gathering that scrap, including public drives. People who took beat-up old pots or pans to their neighborhood motion picture theater got in free. Japan transformed our iron and aluminum refuse into fighter planes, tanks and battleships. Unfortunately, they chose to use their weaponry against us on Dec. 7, 1941.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The California state government recently reported that Japan is the number one buyer of Golden State scrap metal, as well as of other waste materials. (They purchased more than $220 million worth last year.) Fortunately, they no longer make weapons with it. They don't have to. They seem to have already won the war the second time around -- the economic war.
One of the world's top economic powers, Japan is also California's largest trading partner. In 1987, the Japanese imported $4.5 billion worth of Golden State goods, more than 16 percent of our total exports. They consumed 29 percent of our exported agricultural products, worth about $1.2 billion to California's ranchers and farmers.
In return, the Japanese sent us finished consumer goods and made direct investments, buying up California banks, high-tech factories and office buildings. They've recently taken an interest in cattle ranches and feedlots, anticipating the rescindment of beef import restrictions. The impact of such monetary prowess is felt everywhere in the Bay Area. NEC, Mitsui, Sony, Sumitomo, Toshiba and Toyota have become household words -- and major U.S. employers. The Japanese send us their consumer products; we send them our raw materials, and, believe it or not, a large portion of our electronic goods. More about this later.
Wine is one Northern California product that has succeeded in the difficult Japanese consumer market. The recent reduction of import tariffs has the Japanese guzzling Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino chardonnays...