All Japanese goods

Recently, I was in Sakaide on the small Japanese island of Shikoku, far from the glitz of Ginza. It is an industrial town, site of a large shipyard. I walked through an arcade, lined with small shops selling everything from toothbrushes to fine fashions.

The prices were staggering! Even at last year's yen/dollar exchange rate they were outrageous. US$12 for a pair of socks that would sell for $1.50 at Pasaraya, $150 for a nice but rather plain dress that you could buy for $40 at most Jakarta stores.

In any similarly sized town in America, in a similar shopping mall you will find clothing made in Indonesia, shoes made in Pakistan, stereos made in Japan, furniture made in the Philippines -- all selling for a fraction of the prices I saw in Sakaide. Those goods represent jobs in the countries where they are made. But in Sakaide, every single item without exception was Japanese, produced in Japan.

When I asked my guide about it, he searched until he found a Coca Cola sign in a food stall. "You see," he said, "we have imports." I started to laugh, until I realized he was serious.

I thought about the current face-off between the USA and Japan over automobiles, and it seems that the stakes in this dispute go far beyond the USA. My observations in Sakaide are all anyone needs to know about the dispute.

Europeans and others claim sympathy with the U.S., but complain about its methods, saying the U.S. should take the issue to the World Trade Organization. But the infant World Trade Organization would choke on the auto dispute like a baby given a bag of marbles to play with.

Japan will never change its predatory business ways without the huge pressure of the U.S. government and its threat of sanctions. The Japanese government would stall for years "discussing the issues" in the World Trade Organization while its unfair practices continued without slowing.

GARY GENTRY

Jakarta