FROM transistor radios to whole steel mills, the Japanese have been able to sell the rest of the world just about everything—except themselves. A "hate-Japan wind," as it is called in Tokyo, has been rising as legions of Japanese tourists and hard-bargaining salesmen swarm into the rest of Asia. "Once it was 'the ugly American' who proved most conspicuous around here," says a Japanese correspondent in Bangkok. "Now it's 'the ugly Japanese.' And wherever he goes, bribery, the kickback routine, dumping practices, golfing and sex crazes go with him."
The Japanese are making steel in Malaysia, drilling for oil off Indonesia, building cars in the Philippines and assembling television sets in Taiwan. Half a million Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki motor bikes put-put along South Viet Nam's roads, and little Sony radios are to be seen everywhere. "The people feel that we are being invaded," says Thailand's Economic Affairs Minister Bunchana Atthakor, "this time economically."
The other Asians are uneasy at the speed, the size and the cost of the invasion. They tend to play down or overlook Japan's growing aid to the area. Tokyo is paying out $1.5 billion in World War II reparations, has given $220 million to the Asian Development Bank, and has lent $100 million to the World Bank. Japan's foreign aid, most of which goes to other Asian countries, totals $1.4 billion this year, second only to the U.S.'s $1.8 billion. The figure that most concerns Asians, however, is Tokyo's huge trade balance. Last year Japan sold cars, trucks and machinery worth $4.6 billion to East Asia, but spent only half as much for the purchase of timber, maize and other raw materials.
To the steamy, sleepy cities of Asia the Japanese bring the fast-paced temperament of Tokyo, and it is overwhelming. "No one can compete with the Japanese salesman," says a Chinese businessman in Taiwan. "If they don't finish talking business in the daytime, then they talk business at night." A Malaysian businessman notes bitterly: "Whenever we tell the Japanese that their prices are not right, they suddenly develop lapses in English and pretend not to understand."
Sometimes such reactions are born of sour experience; often, however, they simply reflect envy of Japan's drive and organization. Mitsui, a top Japanese trading company, "is better at information gathering than the CIA," swears one Singapore government official. "They send in 20 men to look at an investment. They read everything and they take down everything—even the jokes cracked at meetings." Japanese firms are famous for absorbing absurd losses just to get a piece of a market—which is why Toyota has 25% of the Philippine auto business.