(3 of 4)
Protectionism? Despite the attractions of Japanese products, respondents voted 60% to 35% to put limits on the number of goods that can be sold in the U.S. But when asked about charging a tariff that would make Japanese products more expensive -- the course that the Reagan Administration has since chosen to retaliate against the alleged Japanese dumping of microchips and lack of market access -- only 48% were in favor, while 44% were opposed. Given the 3% margin of polling error, that is very close to an even split. Attitudes toward Japanese investment in the U.S. have varied from poll to poll. Some 50% of the people answering a Louis Harris & Associates poll in 1985 thought that the U.S. should discourage such investment, while only 15% said it should be encouraged. But in the latest Yankelovich survey, 52% thought the opening of Japanese-owned manufacturing plants in the U.S. is good for the American economy, and 62% said they would be willing to work for a Japanese company.
Individual Americans voice equally mixed feelings, when they have any. Many, of course, simply have not been following the latest trade disputes, even if their own jobs are affected by Japanese imports or investments. Workers streaming out of Chrysler's Jefferson Avenue assembly plant in Detroit last week at shift-change time generally declined to express any opinion about the Administration's decision to impose sanctions on several Japanese products. Reagan "is just blowing smoke," volunteered one. "Anyway, it ain't gonna do nothing to help us." Joel Padgett, treasurer of AZS Corp., an Atlanta chemical company owned by Toyo Soda Manufacturing Co. of Tokyo, asserts, "Of our 200 employees, 198 probably don't know anything about it."
Among those who do know, just a few express views that could remotely be considered anti-Japanese. "If unfair trade practices go on, I fear for my job," says Doug Kelly, 32, an engineer at Micron Technology, a Boise chipmaker that has been in the forefront of the call for sanctions and is one of the last two American firms to produce the chips under dispute. But many more people sound far too perplexed to hold any simple views.
Jon Deex, 3l, a businessman in Torrance, Calif., vows to buy U.S. products whenever he has a choice. When shopping for a TV set six months ago, he refused to look at Japanese models; he would consider only RCA and Sylvania sets. "Each person has to do his own part to try to solve the trade deficit," explains Deex. Nonetheless, he opposes protectionist legislation because "we live in an interdependent, interconnected global village. You just can't oversimplify."