Fact Check on Accusations

United States President, Donald Trump, keeps on accusing behavior of Japan in car trade, security cooperation or monetary policy. Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has not raised detailed opposition to Trump’s dispute. A Japanese newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, made an attempt of objection through fact check, one of the means for U.S. media to oppose Trump by finding contradiction in his speeches.

According to research of Asahi, Trump’s accusation of Japan’s car trade as unfair was mostly baseless. While Japan abolished tariff on imported car, which had been 6.4% in 1978, U.S. still poses 2.5% of tariff on cars from Japan. There is no rule in Japan that only causes U.S. disadvantage. The reason why U.S. cars to Japan had the share of only 0.2% in 2008 to 2016 and that of European cars increased from 3.6% to 5.7% was improvement of fuel efficiency or producing right-handled cars.

Trump also accuses Japanese cars as taking jobs of people in U.S. However, total amount of U.S. local production of cars by Japanese makers increased from 420,000 in 1986 to 3,840,000 in 2015. That effort, required by U.S. government, maintains 1.5 million of jobs in factories or sales dealers. The share of Japan in U.S. trade deficit was reduced from 65% in 1991 to 9% in 2015, lower than 49% of China or 10% of Germany.

Trump also targeted security treaty with Japan. “You know, we have a treaty with Japan where if Japan is attacked, we have to use the full force and might of the United States. If we’re attacked, Japan doesn’t have to do anything. They can sit home and watch Sony television, OK?” said Trump in a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, last August. Well, Sony is less popular than Panasonic, Mr. President.

With negative opinion on its constitutionality, however, Japan has set a measure for protecting other country, if the situation would affect security of Japan. Based on Article 6 of Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, U.S. receives offer of using bases. U.S. can send its troops from those bases to anywhere in Asia-Pacific region. Trump has not referred to those benefits.

On monetary policy, Trump’s accusation partly makes some sense. Trump argued that other countries including Japan took advantage of U.S. with their money and their money supply and devaluation. In terms of devaluation, Japan has not involved in foreign exchange market since November 2011, when the value of Japanese yen rose in confusion after Eastern Japan Great Earthquake.

But, it is true that monetary easing of Bank of Japan caused low-valued Japanese yen against U.S. dollar. In the election campaign in 2012, Abe told that he would run rotary press and let BoJ print bills limitlessly. After BoJ introduced monetary easing in April 2013, value of Japanese yen declined from in lower nineties for a dollar to in the middle of one-twenties. But, currency market should not be affected by oral intervention by political leaders, anyway.