Page 6 THE BATTALION
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1978
Sun Theatres
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333 University 846
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MSC CAMERA
COMMITTEE
FALL PHOTO
CONTEST
MSC CAMERA COMMITTEE
FALL PHOTO CONTEST
Entry pick-up tables
in MSC on Nov. 6, 7,
and 8, 1978
(no entries taken af
ter 3:00 p.m. Nov. 8)
Formal Judging Nov.
11, 1978
Jopanese^ markets await imports
More sales if U.S.
United Press International
NEW YORK — American com
panies can sell far more in Japan by
adapting their products to Japanese
tastes and their standard of weights
and measures, according to
Japanese businessmen.
“For instance,” Yohei Mimura,
president of Mitsubishi Interna
tional Corp., said in an interview,
“large-model refrigerators, which
Seibu Department Store had
bought from Sears Roebuck and
Co., were sold well in the Japanese
market this summer. The reason is
very simple. Sears adjusted the re
frigerators’ door shelves to the size
of Japanese beer bottles, which are
about two times larger than Ameri
cans”.
Mitsuru Ohki, manager of Sony
Corporation of America’s public re
lations, said if American automakers
were to export small-sized, right
hand-drive cars to Japan, they
would enjoy a large sale. “But they
don’t do so and try to sell without
adapting their cars to Japanese so-
LJ 846-6714 & 846-1151 H
UNIVERSITY SQUARE SHOPPING CENTER «
niTiTHiii
DAI LY|i-"SGT PEPPER’S^
5:30 |LONELY HEARTS^
7:30
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CINEMA
NATIONAL “ 5
cial environment,” he said.
Many American businessmen
complain that Japan’s distribution
system is so complex and difficult
that it is practically impossible to
market their products. “The
Japanese distribution system is cer
tainly complex, but it doesn’t inhe
rently discriminate against im
ports,” Mimura said. “It is difficult
for everyone, including Japanese
manufacturers. ”
Then how can American firms
overcome the Japanese distribution
system to reach a vast, affluent mar
ket of 115 million consumers?
“There are several avenues open
to American companies to go into
the Japanese market,” said Masao
Okamoto, director of Nomura Re
search Institute. He told a recent
meeting of U.S. and Japanese busi
nessmen in Baltimore that a partial
list of possible approaches includes
the large general trading com
panies, retail outlets like supermar
kets, department stores and self-
service chains, and manufacturers of
parts and replacements. "An alter
native to establishing one’s own dis
tribution network is to utilize the
marketing network of a Japanese
manufacturer of similar goods,” he
said.
alters products
“For example, General Foods had
only a 5 to 10 percent share of the
Japanese market” when it used its
own distribution system. But he
said it was able to boost its market
share to 20 to 25 percent by tying up
with Ajinomoto Co., a Japanese sea
soning manufacturer.
An even more spectacular expan
sion of market share was attained by
Warner-Lambert with Hattori To-
keiten, a manufacturer of “Seiko”
watches. “Through Hattori’s distri
bution system,” Okamoto said,
“Warner-Lambert was able to in
crease its share of the $40 million
safety razor and blade market to 65
percent, outstripping both Gillete
and the once dominant domestic
‘Feather’ brand.”
Those foreign firms all made a de
termined effort to understand the
Japanese market, decided to dig in
for the long haul, and waited pa
tiently to realize a return, he said.
The problem is, however, that such
strategy goes against the grain of
American management.
“American companies are often
too eager to show early returns to
satisfy their investors,” said Hideo
Suzuki, president of Kanematsu-
Gosho (U.S.A.) Inc. “The giant
American firms like IBM and GE
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or for FERTI LOME products
have adapted their marketing
strategies to Japanese realities, but
small companies are reluctant ex
porters by and large because there
is a vast domestic market.”
Last year, the United States be
came for the first time a big net im
porter of goods. It suffered a record
trade deficit of $26.7 billion, of
which $8.1 billion came in trade
with Japan. Obviously, the United
States cannot afford to continue with
so large a deficit with Japan. As
Commerce Secretary Juanita M.
Kreps has put it, “If we do not try
harder to sell to Japan, we really
cannot blame Japan for not buying
from us.”
The dollar’s decline against the
Japanese yen has made American
products more competitive in the
Japanese market. “So, now is best
time for American companies to tap
the Japanese market,” Sadami
(Chris) Wada, Sony assistant vice
president, said.
Sony, generally regarded as a
major exporter from Japan to the
United States, is also active in im
porting U.S. consumer goods to Ja
pan, he said. Last year, it imported
American goods worth $50 million
to Japan. They included Whirlpool
refrigerators. Hoover vacuum
cleaners, Norwich T-shirts and
Cosco bathroom accessories.
“American manufacturers, espe
cially small ones, show littleinterfs
in selling their goods in
Wada said. “Many potentialexpon
ers, I believe, destroy the oppoi
tunities open to them. Pointingo
both the U.S. and Japanese
emments are now more eagerllu
ever to help U.S. companies exp#
to Japan, he said they can maketl*
most of this opportunity by tab
basic steps to market in forei;
countries. Those basics are to
special attention to packaging,
print their instructions in Japane
to adapt the design and colon
their products to Japanese prefa
ences and to give extra attention
timing for samples and quotation!
and to timing of delivery, he said
“The Japanese market is ven
affluent, but very discriminatir.;'
Wada said. “It’s not a marketwfc
Americans can dump their surpln
but a market where their best prod
nets will compete with the rest
the world’s best products.”
A 100-member U.S. exportdf
velopment mission visited Jap,
this fall to promote sales of Amei
can products and conduct mark
research. It was a follow-up to
92-member Japanese import proi
tion mission, which toured tlj
country to seek out Americanprai
nets that could be exported to
pan. The mission purchased go«i
worth $1.94 billion.
Chinese visitors
study gasification
HARDY GARDENS
1127 Villa Maria
Bryan
846-8319
| ah
1979 INTERCOLLEGIATE BRIDGE
CHAMPIONSHIP PRELIMINARIES
n cflmpus-uuiDE bridge cohtest
UJED.
nov. s
745pm
PLAY FOR —
pm
Campus Championship 1
Trip to regional ACU-I tournament !
Expense-paid trip to national finals!
212
Competition is open to all fulltime students
holding fewer than 900 ACBL Master points.
msc
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CALL STU WALKER 846-3849
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Each Daily Special Only $1.69 Plus Tax.
“Open Daily”
Dining: 11 A.M. to 1:30 P.M. — 4:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M.
MONDAY EVENING
SPECIAL
Salisbury Steak
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Whipped Potatoes
Your Choice of
One Vegetable
Roll or Corn Bread and Butter
Coffee or Tea
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THURSDAY EVENING SPECIAL
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And your choice of any
One vegetable
United Press International
SARATOGA, Wyo. — Through a
veil of cigarette smoke, 19 of China’s
top experts on coal — all but one
wearing gray. Western-style suits —
sat and listened attentively to a
presentation on American experi
ments in gasifying coal beneath the
ground.
The delegation represented one
facet of China’s outreach to the
Western world under the post-Mao
Tse-tung leadership’s drive to
quickly make China a “modern” na
tion. The trip also was an indication
of a departure for a country which
under Mao and particularly during
the Cultural Revolution, stressed
the necessity of ideological purity or
“redness” over expertise.
The Chinese, all members of the
China Coal Society, puffed on ciga
rettes, took notes and asked ques
tions as they watched slides and
heard through an interpreter from
Charles F. Brandenburg, an assis
tant director of a federal research
center involved in underground
gasification.
Brandenburg told the group
about the process, by which coal too
deep to mine is burned under
ground to form gas for heating. He
also told of the limitations: the gas
generally has one-seventh to one-
tenth the heating value of natural
gas, the process cannot be used on
coal found in the eastern United
States, and thick seams of sub-
bituminous coal are necessary.
The Chinese showed particular
interest in estimates showing the
process might produce commer
cially salable gas.
. Li Chih-yuan, the general secre
tary of the delegation and a director
of the coal society, said in an inter
view after the lecture that his coun
try’s goal is to double coal produc
tion during the next 10 years.
Whether underground gasification
will play a role in development re
mains to be seen, Li and other
members of the delegation said. The
experts will return to China and
study the U.S. technology, they
said.
The Chinese arrived in Washing
ton, D.C., Sept. 13 to began a tour
MSC AGGIE CINEMA
BOGART FESTIVAL
Tuesday, Nov. 7
The Maltese
Falcon
8 p.m.
In A
Lonely Place
10 p.m.
Rudder Theater
Wednesday, Nov. 8
The Treasure
of the
Sierra Madre
8 p.m.
The Caine
Mutiny
10:30 p.m.
Rudder Theater
of American coal mines and researi
facilities.
Like the United States, Chimin
vast coal reserves. But, Chiaiai!
much of the coal is near cities
fertile agricultural areas, makingi
cess for mining difficult.
Underground gasification exps
iments were conducted in Cbu
but "they were stopped, ” Chiad
Although most coal mining in Ch
now is done underground beau
reserves generally are deep,
said, China wants to develop iw
strip mining, used extensively ini
American West where coal is tel
tively near the surface.
After the one-hour presentatr
in Saratoga, the delegates boaii
their charter bus and rode tothes:
of the gasification experiments
Hanna, Wyo., some 40 milesnoiS
through desolate stretches ofrol
prairie.
During the tour of the Haw
facility -— one of three undergroai
gasification sites in the country
the delegates seemed particubl
interested in the measuring instx
ments and computers used in
experiments, Brandenburg said
At one point on the tour, Cl
questioned Brandenburg wheti
the world leader in undergroiB
gasification was the United States!
the Soviet Union, China’s ard
rival. Brandenburg said theSiW
probably weie ahead because tk
have been gasifying coal unde
ground for 40 years.
“We’ve heard rumors thatti
Soviets are declining their actig
but they are unconfirmed,
denburg said. “We do know!
they put first things first-tk
take their product gas and use
distill vodka.”
That comment was greeted will
roar of laughter from Chia aw
other delegates within earshot
U.S. officials say undergrou
gasification provides access
deeply buried coal, and may ii
come commercially feasible ini
later parts of this century. Howra
the Axuericans say it may havei
verse effects on underground w#
supplies.
Other than to say China wnd
study the issue, Chia and otli!
interviewed did not speculate
the applicability of undergrou
gasification to China. Chia
China was concerned
environmental effects of thep®
/upf/rami
Eddie Dominguez 5*
Joe Arciniega