Introduction—U.S./Japanese Trade: Its Scope and Legal Framework

For the past several years, the United States has had more trade with Japan than with any other country in the world, except Canada. Furthermore, the state of Washington has had the highest per capita exports to Japan of any of the states, due largely to wheat, logs, and jet aircraft. Besides its obvious benefits, growing trade interdependence has caused its own frictions which have, in turn, required intervention by the American and Japanese governments. This has produced treaties as well as national legal regulation in both Japan and the United States to supplement the private law of sales.

Something of the scope and trends of U.S./Japanese trade, as well as the Japanese regulatory devices and the international legal framework, is presented below.