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their business philosophy froq the Con- The Sogo Shosha: fucian cultural tradition. which empha- sizes harmony and community. They ’s -Multinational Trading Companies operate like an extended family unit, by Alexander K. Young following principles of filial piety and (Westview Press; 247 pp.; $20.00) loyalty toward their clients. Rather than quick profits on single deals, GTCs like to build long-lasting loyal relationships based on high vol- Frank Meissner ume: They typically realize profits of 1.7 to 2 per cent on total revenue; they In the 1970’s Japan started to outshine provided new technology, information, often take losses on deals because of the the socioeconomic performance of the overseas oIfices, private communica- special problems of certain close cus- as measured by almost all tions systems. and ships. tomers, just as family businesses give common indices. Thoughtful Ameri- Thehestruction of World War 11 was discounts to relatives. Admittedly. they cans warn that if this erosion of Amcri- complete. Few people bclieved that Ja- work most comfortably with other Ja- can economic competitiveness deepens. pan would ever again become‘a signifi- panese companies, which also operate our standard of living will be jeopar- cant economic power. The environment on the basis of mutual loyalty. Yet they dited and our national strength eroded. for trdding houses changed. and are willing to extend loyalty to foreign We might become another England. . the two biggcst traders, companies as well. America must respond constructively to were dissolved. Other ‘traders soon Dr. Young points out that up to now the Japense challenge or, like an old sol- moved in to fill the vacuum, turning the American business community has dier, “fade away.” The Japanese explain every adversity into opportunity. De- not been able to figure out the enigmat- in cultural terms their capability of run- pression. which followed the Korean ic GTCs. They tended to act in accor- ning rings around us, while knowledge- War. necessitated change in structure dance with an old Czech proverb able Americans believe it is more a mat- for both trading houses and the Ja- “What the.pSasant does not know, he ter of overall economic policy. It is panese economy: less concentration on does not eat.’’ Consequently, the spirit undoubtedly a little of each. textiles and a shift to heavy and chcmi- of the freewheeling Yankee trader The Sogo Shosha, the General Trad- cal industries. Steady supplies of raw seems to have evaporated as Americans ing Companies (GTCs), are the little- materials were needed. GTCs stepped ran for cover crying “foul play.” In known institutions that implement Ja- in by organizing joint investment and 1970, Herman Kahn pointed out the pan’s economic policy. Alexander resource development ventures aimed at shortsightedness of this attitude, but Young, professor of international rela- increasing sources of food and other sta- nobody paid much attention. (While tions at the State University of New ples. Big volume and low commission Young’s topic index omits Kahn. there York in New Paltz, writes that with an was the dominant method of operation. is under the letter “K” a reference to annual turnover of over S200 billion, the There was no limit.to flexibility. GTCs Kentucky Fried Chicken.) ten big GTCs (Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Ma- are involved in urban development, rubeni, Itoh, Sumitomo, Nisso-Twai, housing, fashion, distribution, consul- All that glitters is not gold, of course. Toymenka, Kanematsu-Gosho, Ataka, tancy. and engineering. Professor Young shows that since the and Nichimcn) account for morc than In short, GTCs are bundles of energy mid-1970’s it has been rough going for half of all Japanese imports and exports. aimed at problem-solving in a supply/ some of the Sogo Shosha. Geared to one-fifth of domestic wholesale trade, demand-oriented world. They identify growth. more especially to export-led one-third of Japan’s gross national pro- ways to supply goods and services by growth. the GTCs have not thrived on duct, and over 5 per cent of the entire acting as intermediaries in simple or limping world economies, energy crisis, world’s export trade. complex trade deals. they create de- yen revaluation. and direct restrictions The beginning of the GTCS goes back mand for products in specific markets, on Japan’s exports. Moreover, Japanese to 1868. when Japan shed its self- they boost trade flows toward existing manufacturing concerns are rapidly imposed isolation and set about chang- markets, they look for weak spots in learning to cut out intermediaries. In ing from a feudal state to a modern existing rate flows, and initiate industri- the early 1960’s the GTCs handled nation. That meant trade, an activity al development to help shore them up. three-quarters of Japan’s imports. by Japan pursued from the start of the In short, the Sogo Shosha offer a net- 1977 only half. Likewise, the GTC modern era. Coming out of isolation, work of international and domestic ser- share of export trade has fallen from 56 Japan had no expertisc in foreign trade. vices that catalyze trade in any product per cent in 1974 to 49 per cent in 1978. International commerce was dominated or service worth trading in. This is happening when the GTCs’ by foreign companies. Later, as Japan’s The original purpose of the GTCs dependence on the international side of leaders stimulated industrializa- was to serve Japanese companies only. their business is growing. tion, trade gradually shifted to Japanese but today a substantial and growing part GTCs are not taking all this lying business houses. Starting from zero. by of their activity consists of imports and down. They are examining their ex- the end of World War I1 GTCs handled exports of goods on behalf of manufac- posed role as bankers to small business niost of Japan’s foreign trade and were turers and buyers of commodities in clients. operating on leverages that financing intermediary domestic indus- other nations. Yet the Sogo Shosha would make U.S. financial officers run tries as well as foreign companics. They remain uniquely Japanease. They derive for cover or face impeachment. They are increasing bad-debt provisions, the more than 200 GTC ofices around respectively), or the basic, pithy, strengthening screening of credit re- the world, or a young man's ascent on though thoroughly Europn. statement quests, and cutting back support of the lifetime career ladder (women not on human rights and American policy selected clients. They are substituting yet admitted), and so forth. Third, there by Zbigniew Brzezinski at the White new activities to diversify from overcx- should be case studies of how small House Commemoration of the 30th An- panded industries such as opcn-hearth American exporters grew and prospered niversary of the Universal Declaration steel. sugar refining, and plywood. by using the Sogo Shosha to pave their of Human Rights. Young's pioneering treatise on such way into Japanese markets. Fourth, Nonetheless, the three anthologies an important subject as GTCs calls for a above all there should be a chapter or taken together provide the student of revised edition. which gradually would two highlighting the Japanese style and human rights with a solid look at the bestow on it the status of a classic. Here possibilities of adapting some of the ele- cluster of complicated issues involved in arc some suggestions for the second edi- ments to American and West European United States initiatives to promote tion: First, cut out most of the more management practices. such rights. Many of the chapters in than sixty statistical tables, a flood of But Professor Young has written a these books are written by key partici- data which tends to drown out many an book that should be on the shelves of pants in the struggle for human rights important message. Second, the prag- economic and diplomatic professionals and the recent attempts to introduce matic roider looks for some carefully dealing with the Far East. and that human rights concerns in h"io?n for- selected and comprehensively treated claims the attention also of intelligent eign policy: In Rubin and Spiro we have case studies of such topics as putting laypersons who wonder why the Ja- Donald Fraser, chairman of the llouse t6gether ti.e complex agribusiness dcal panese are running circles around us of Representatives subcommittee that in Brazil, the feeding and areof one of and what we might do about it. Im leads the way in Congress; Dante Fas- cell, co-chairman of the Congrcssional Helsinki Commission; Senator Moyni- tian; Theo Van Boven, director of the U.N. Human Rights Division. In Brown and MacLean appear Mark Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy Schneider. the State Departmcnt's hu- man rights workhorse; Tom Buergen- ed. by Peter Brown and Douglas MacLean thal, a member of the Inter-American (Lexington Books; 301 pp.; $16.95) Court of Human Rights; John Salz- burg, for years the key congressional Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policv staffer on human rights; the Reverend William Wipfler. a major link in the ed. by Bar6 Rubin and Elizabveth Sp60 Unitcd States for human rights prob- (Westview Press; 283 pp.; $20.00) lems in Latin America. And Kommers and Loescher include A.H. Robertson, formcr director for human rights, Human Rights and American Foreign Council of Europe; Ben Whitaker, di- Policy rector, Minority Rights Group; Tom Farer. member of the Inter-American ed. by Donald Kommers Human Rights Commission; Nigel and Gilburt Loescher Rodley, legal advisor to Amnesty Inter- (University of Notre Dame Press; 345 pp.; 514.95) national; Laurie Wiseberg and Harry Scoble, co-editors of the Human Rights Ititernet newsletter. Additionally, Ru- bin and Spiro, and Kommers and David Hawk Loescher, include the basic administra- tion human rights policy pronounce- None of thesc books is complete or ist, and overlooks the international fi- ments by Carter, Vance, Warren internally coherent. Kommcrs and nancial institutions as if the multilateral Christopher, and Patricia Derian. Loescher is a well-edited version of aid spigots were not a prime concern of Brown and MacLean include three papers presented at a conference in congressional human rights advocates. excellent case studies: the April, 1977, but most of the pieces have None of the introductions by the cdi- (Richard Claude), (Jc- little to do with American foreign poli- tors provide either a cogent rationale for rome Cohen), and Iran (Richard Cot- cy. Most of the chapters in Rubin and including the articles that follow or a tam). Elizabeth Spiro provides a useful Spiro have been published elsewhere, clear and concise introduction to the introduction to the complexities of US. chiefly in Commentary. Brown and announced subject matter: human human rights policies toward the multi- MacLean, strangely for a volume that rights and US. foreign policy. For this lateral aid institutions, and Abraham concentrates on "human rights provi- an interested reader could better start Sirkin (in Brown and MacLean) dis- sions in US. law governing foreign poli- with Arthur Schlesinger's or Sandra cusses lucidly the impossibility of con- cy," overlooks the Soviet Union as if the Vogelgesang's articles in Foreign Af- sistency in U.S. human rights policy, Jackson-Vanik amendment docs not ex- fairs (January, 1979. and July, 1978, arguing for balance, integrity, and co-