William J. Holstein

In a front page story yesterday, the Wall Street Journal seems to have responded to the arguments that Eamonn Fingleton and others have been making about Japan's surprising strengths. The headline was "End of Era for Japan's Exports." It went on to say: "One of the world's greatest export engines is running out of steam." The story was sparked by the fact that Japan has had its first annual trade deficit since 1980. Japan could run trade deficits for years to come, the article warns, particularly if the yen remains at the level of abouot 76 to the dollar, which is very high.

In the Next American Economy, I proposed that the federal government should combine the Foreign and Commercial  Service within the Department of Commerce with the Small Business Administration and the Export-Import Bank. According to my analysis, the agencies involved in promoting exports by small and medium sized companies are not well-coordinated.

Now comes news that the highest ranking foreigner at Nomura Holdings, Jasjit Bhattal, has resigned after he was not able to win enough support to overhaul the bank's global wholesale operations. The Wall Street Journal calls the departure a "blow to Nomura's bid to become a global investment-banking powerhouse and creates a leadership vacuum at the bank's wholesale-banking unit." Nomura was one Japanese company that many experts held up as the example of one that could integrate foreigners into its upper ranks and transform its culture.