In Tokyo and Osaka last week, train and subway riders were confronted by 100,000 pictures of Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone on posters bearing an unusual message: LET US TAKE IT UPON OURSELVES TO USE FOREIGN PRODUCTS AND EXPAND IMPORTS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES. The signs are part of a $600,000 campaign by the Japanese government to follow up Nakasone's April 9 television speech, in which he urged the public to help reduce a $46 billion annual trade surplus, most of it run up with the U.S.
Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry, which is spearheading the import drive, called in top...