Competitiveness is a relative thing. It is not how fast you run that counts, but that you run faster than the others. Over the next three or four years if Japanese companies adjust more quickly than North American companies, they will increase their competitive advantage. It may well be that in 1995 or l996 the Japanese market will be even tougher to penetrate than in the past, not because of regulatory problems but because Japanese companies will be that much more competitive. The questions of regulation, business practices and government policies come after that.
Japan today is on the defensive.
Japanese companies need money. Assets are available today that were not available in the past. Japanese companies today are willing to do deals that two or three years ago they never would have considered. Technology and distribution networks are available on more favorable terms than ever in the past decade. With Japanese companies on the defensive, rather than doing the easy thing and raising prices in the United States, American companies should be slashing prices at home in order to roll back the Japanese market share.