U.S. WORKERS PRODUCTIVE, EXPERTS SAY

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 21, 1992                   TAG: 9201210184
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short
U.S. WORKERS PRODUCTIVE, EXPERTS SAY
A top Japanese politician's claim that the U.S.-Japan trade imbalance is due to laziness among American workers is inflammatory and untrue, experts said Monday.
Yoshio Sakurauchi, speaker of Japan's House of Representatives, was quoted as saying Sunday that "American workers don't work hard enough. They don't work but demand high pay."
The comments are at odds with the experiences of many Japanese companies with U.S. plants.
"The man is full of baloney," said Ronald Shaw, president of Pilot Pen Corp. of America, a U.S. subsidiary of a Japanese company.
Japan's Honda says the workers at its U.S. factories match the best in the world. It also says the quality of the cars the American workers turn out equals that of Japanese-made Hondas.
Studies continue to place American workers at the top of the list in productivity worldwide.
"There's no evidence our problems are caused by labor being lazy," said Claude Barfield, a trade expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based research organization.
Barfield said it was foolish for Bush to believe he could force the Japanese to buy more American cars when Japanese consumers believe Japanese cars are better - a view shared by many American consumers.
Barfield said he believes Sakurauchi's comments are "one unfortunate consequence of the president's disastrous trip. You bred a lot of resentment over there."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB