The Japanese Ministry of International Trade & Industry is stepping up its efforts to increase imports to Japan and reduce the country’s trade surplus and has launched a New Year import-expansion programme. The programme will consist of a new tax incentive system to promote manufactured imports from abroad, unilateral elimination of tariffs on major industrial products and an increase in the government budget for promoting import-expanding projects and is expected to be enforced in April 1990 after final Cabinet approval. Tariffs will be eliminated on 1,004 products including electronic and related products such as computers, calculators, integrated circuits and also optical fibres, radio and television receivers and medical equipment. The import value of the goods covered is expected to be $12,100m. The tax incentive scheme gives importing buyers a tax credit of 5% of the ammount by which they increase their imports. It is applicable to those that import, within a year, qualified goods at a rate of at least 10% more than the largest ammount of qualified imports in the previous year. The system allows a special depreciation on certain equipment and machinery. MITI’s fiscal 1991 budget for undertaking various import-expanding projects has been increased to $100m and it will establish a network of centres within Japan and overseas to provide information to those thinking of exporting to Japan and on willing importers. A new loan and financing facility of $893m is available from the Export-Import Bank of Japan, foreign corporations located overseas and wishing to export to Japan are eligible. According to MITI having increased its imports by $38,000m billion in 1988, Japan’s goal is to reduce its trade surplus to $78,000m in the 1991 fiscal year compared with $91,000m forecast for this fiscal.
