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cultivate friendships with the Japanese, learn the language, and interest themselves in the affairs of the country to a far greater extent than the managers and staffs of British firms are accustomed to do. The result, it is affirmed, is that the business of British merchant firms, and consequently that of the British manu- facturers whom they represent, does not develop owing to their lack of enterprise and hard work and their failure to obtain new customers.
93. The merchant's answer to the criticisms directed against him is that, though British by tradition and sympathy, he is un- able to sell British goods principally because of their high price. He points out that the manufacturers of countries competing with Great Britain seek and use his services. He would undoubtedly prefer to continue his former trade in British goods, but his first duty, he claims, is to maintain his own business. He is therefore forced to sell the goods of our competitors when they are either more suitable or more attractive in price.
94. Complaints such as those referred to above, are so frequently made that we fear there must be some foundation for them, though we can personally testify to the existence in Japan of some British merchant houses which are second to none in energy and intelli- gence. It is, however, clear to us that, generally speaking, the distribution of British goods in Japan is lacking in intelligent direction, inspiration and enthusiasm. The British merchant in Japan naturally deals in the goods which are most remunerative, and easiest to handle, and does not, as a rule, act as a pioneer for British manufacturers. The lesson to be learned seems to be quite clear. The British manufacturer himself must provide the stimulus for the sale of goods in Japan and indeed in all markets. He must, without any doubt, lower production costs at home. Abroad he can strengthen his distributive machinery by one of three methods:-
(a) attaching, at his own expense, one or more technical and sales' promotion experts to an efficient merchant house in Japan;
(b) undertaking the sale and distribution himself through his own branch establishment;
(c) employing a resident agent working on commission. Which of the three methods should be adopted, depends to some extent on the character of the product, but no matter what the product may be, method (a) or (b) will enable the British manu- facturer to know for a certainty what the market requires and in what form to pioneer, seek out, and develop untouched portions of the market, to anticipate future needs, to create new demands, and to co-operate in local developments involving a demand for goods or equipment such as Great Britain can supply. It may be objected by individual British manufacturers that the volume of
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business would not repay them for the expense involved. answer to this objection is to pool the distribution or export interest of a number of allied but non-competitive manufacturers, or to adopt method (c), which does not involve any immediate outlay by the manufacturer.
95. Whatever method is adopted, a personal visit of the principal of the home firm is indispensable to ensure that the right personnel is employed and the right methods are used. Complaints were often made to us that principals of British firms either do not visit the market, or when they do, spend an entirely inadequate time in Japan, often limiting their visits to a few days. Further complaints were made that very few British firms or industries maintain technical expert representatives in Japan. With this is contrasted the practice of the United States firms which have many more technical representatives than British firms either attached to merchant houses in Japan or working independently and representing the interests, in some cases, of groups of manu- facturers. As the United States and Japan have so large a mutual trade between them, there is naturally a constant going and coming of business men between the two countries, and the commercial intercourse thus promoted is a most important factor in developing transactions in many commodities.
96. But, we repeat, the stimulus for sales must come from the British manufacturer.-He has, or should have, an interest much greater than anyone else in the sale of his goods, and the next main interest is that of the consumer. Whatever distributive organisation is necessary between these two must be efficient and free from the indifference to British goods which undoubtedly at present exists in some merchant firms. How can British manu- facturers expect to enter or remain in a market in which they have no efficient distributive or informative organisation? By develop- ing personal representation, British manufacturers should be able to gain and maintain complete intimacy with the Japanese import market and, equally important, follow the development of Japanese industry in so far as it becomes competitive with them in other markets.
97. British trade has been handicapped by a manufacturing policy not fully cognisant of the requirements of overseas markets. Too often the British manufacturer relinquishes all interest in his goods when they leave the factory. Often, where the goods them- selves are suitable, the packing or presentation is unattractive or inappropriate to a particular market. These are handicaps addi- tional to those of high price and bad representation which we have discussed above. In addition, there is too often inatten- tion to suggestions and complaints of overseas representatives. British manufacturers must realise that, in the world of to-day, as compared with the period of our virtual monopoly of trade, our
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