FOREIGN RELATIONS, 19 3 4, VOLUME III



especially in the industrial field. One example will illustrate the (to
us) absurd length to which it is pushed. Some months ago General
Motors, who have an assembly plant in Osaka, decided that they
would enlarge their establishment, as they have reached the limit of
production with their present equipment. With the idea of invit-
ing Japanese participation, they offered to sell stock in the Japan
company to one Aikawa, Managing Director of the Kuhara interests.
The arrangement has been held in abeyance, however, because the
company has been unable to obtain permission to purchase New York
exchange for the amount they are to be paid. The Department of
Commerce and Industry has been unwilling to issue a certificate that
the transaction was non-speculative, due, it is stated, to Army oppo-
sition. The Army is promoting the manufacture of a Japanese-made
automobile, and desires Kuhara cooperation in this direction rather
than their association with a foreign concern. Similar instances of
opposition to the growth of foreign interests have been frequent of
late.
  Many Japanese who are in sympathy with this movement realize
that the Japanese product will not be as effective, but they are per-
suaded that these are emergency times, that the country is in danger
and that a Japanese product will serve their turn for the moment.
Others again resent what they term exploitation of Japan for the
benefit of the foreigner and would honestly prefer no export trade in
this type of article to having industry in Japan in any degree subject
to foreign control. These forces are now operating in feverish haste
to produce in Japan everything which the military decides are key
industries or articles "necessary to the national defence". The
country
is on an emergency footing, and the determined effort to be "self-
sufficient" is absorbing a large part of its energies.
  This state of mind is being made use of, naturally, by many in-
dustrialists who see in it an opportunity for themselves. It seems
probable that some of the present oil difficulties, for example, are in
a measure due to the influence of a few men in the oil refining busi-
ness who believed there was an opportunity to get rid of foreign
competition in the sale of refined petroleum.69 It is significant that
the President of the Japan Oil Company is a member of the House
of Peers, as well as President of the new "Manchukuo" Oil Company.
  There are, of course, men of vision in Japan who are aware of
these considerations. They realize that Japan is, and in the nature
of things must continue to be, dependent on the outside world for
many things, especially raw materials, necessary to the country's
industrial life. They understand that technical assistance and inter-

'"For representations on establishment of oil monopolies in Japan and
Man-
churia, see pp. 699 ff.



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