抄録
This paper is comprised of three sections. The first contains a cursory review of the balance of trade and current accounts of ASEAN countries in the 1970s, made in order to grasp the salient features of trade imbalances of ASEAN countries. Interestingly, ASEAN's overall balance of trade vis-à-vis Japan has been favourable since the latter half of the '70s, due to the rapidly increasing export of resources including oil from Indonesia and Malaysia. Countries without a surplus of resources for export, namely Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore, have suffered deficits in the balance of trade with Japan. Inasmuch as ASEAN's balance of trade with Japan is on the whole favourable, opportunities exist for these countries to seek a triangular solution through trade including the region and Japan. Thailand's surplus vis-à-vis Indonesia is a case in point.
Second, a detailed analysis by commodity of exports from Thailand and the Philippines to Japan has been tried with a view to discovering potentials for improvement. The major hope seems to be industrial products.
Third, somewhat longer-term relations between the pattern of ASEAN trade and the ASEAN and Japanese industrial structures are analysed with a view to finding effective means of economic cooperation by adjusting industrial structure.
