Crisis in Japan

By “Awake!” correspondent in Japan

THOUGH not impressive among nations in land area, Japan has become a giant among them in industrial power. What it lacks in bulk, it makes up for in hard work. But the giant has a weakness.

All the hard work in the world cannot make up for lack of natural resources. The oil crisis dramatically brought this deficiency home to the people of Japan.

Imports supply nearly all of Japan’s oil, and they are largely from Arab countries. An embargo on this supply could quickly play havoc with the Japanese economy.

Suddenly, last October 17, Arab oil-producing countries shocked Japan with a threat to do just that. They announced cuts in oil supplies for lands considered unfriendly to the Arab viewpoint in their dispute with Israel. Japan’s government was stunned and the country was thrown into a panic. She had to make her position clear, or suffer the consequences.

The government quickly took a position that allowed for the continued flow of Arab oil. But, in the meantime, Japan’s businessmen and others reacted to reports of this “crisis” with startling effects.

No Real Shortage

In the confusion that reigned after the Arab announcement, ruthless business opportunists took advantage of the situation to make windfall profits. The wholesale price index spiraled to 30 percent over the previous year by January, and retail prices were up over 20 percent by the end of 1973. Yet, ironically, oil continued to flow to Japan unabated. There was no shortage at all! What is more, the oil being used then was still at the old price! How did such a contradictory situation develop?

First, even before the October announcement, oil men were stockpiling oil right along, and the storage tanks were brimming full! It seems that they had feared an Arab takeover of oil installations for some time. During the height of the “crisis,” a Japanese weekly interviewed seamen working on oil tankers. They reported that it was much easier to get oil in the Middle East than it was to get the daily necessities at home.

Apparently confirming this, Kiire, one of Japan’s largest petroleum depots, received 30 percent more oil during the last three months of 1973 than during the same period a year before. And a report from the Nagasaki Customs office put the increase figure for December at 40 percent. The speculation about a large drop in oil supplies proved to be wrong.

Of course, Middle East crude oil now costs about twice as much as it did last October. But the higher-priced oil did not begin to reach Japan until February, well after the boost was announced on December 25. Yet, prices were raised drastically before that time. The crisis atmosphere created the paradox of seemingly short supply and high prices, when actually there should have been plenty at lower prices.

Business Profiteering

Some of the methods said to have been employed to trick the public have been exposed. Documented evidence of how profiteering on the oil noncrisis turned it into an inflation crisis has come into the hands of Diet (legislature) members.

Japan’s Fair Trade Commission recently issued a report accusing her giant trading houses of buying up and hoarding commodities. Investigations into the operations of hundreds of wholesalers, supermarkets and retailers also revealed that the volume of goods flowing to wholesalers was up as much as 60 percent while the wholesalers were still storing them to drive prices up. Yet, during the same period, goods flowing from wholesalers to retailers decreased. Tokyo customs recently summoned 23 trading-house officials to explain why they were warehousing large quantities of imported goods after they had cleared customs. They warned them that 120,000 tons of foodstuffs might be confiscated unless they put them up for sale immediately.

Retailers, too, were found to be guilty of deliberately taking goods off the shelves to create a shortage. They had changed the price tags before returning them to the shelves in small quantities. The deceived public gobbled them up in panic. A government television documentary exposed the changing of price tags in warehouses. This even afforded part-time work for some in certain areas.

Cries from the outraged public forced some stores to try to placate the people by reducing some prices. One chain store, for example, though dealing in over 3,000 commodities, reduced retail prices on only 17 items by an average of 10 percent.

Though the government has taken some steps to check the situation, the people are still smarting from higher costs, and little relief is in sight. Oil companies are now pointing to their financial losses since February, but the Government is suggesting that they recycle their windfall profits to pay off their deficits. One thing is certain: the people’s cost of living is up to stay.

Yet the people must also share part of the blame for their present plight. How so?

The People Panic

Many of Japan’s people played right into the hands of the profiteers. Everything was blamed on the “oil shortage.” Panic buying and hoarding became the order of the day. Housewives were faced with empty shelves where sugar, flour, cooking oil, detergents, toilet paper and other daily necessities had been in seemingly endless supply.

Long lines began forming outside the big stores well before opening time. Then came the stampede for a few essentials that would be gone in minutes. Several family members would join the lines where goods were rationed to one per person. Many housewives stood in line every day just to buy the same things. Some acted as if their very lives depended on a roll of toilet paper. One might wonder: If this is what happens when there is an unfounded “shortage,” what will happen when there is a real one?

Countries other than Japan have experienced similar reactions. Gasoline shortage roused tempers and hoarding in the United States. Even good crops in India could not forestall unprecedented hoarding to drive prices up. There is little evidence that people will hesitate to act ruthlessly against their neighbors should shortages become real and acute​—Ezek. 38:21.

On the other hand, some of those who put their trust in material things have been forced to realize that such can slip out of their hands as easily as the oil they depend on; that “even when a person has an abundance his life does not result from the things he possesses.” Thus some may learn to appreciate that there are other more important values in life, and turn to spiritual things.​—Luke 12:15.