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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 2, 1995                   TAG: 9503020027
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RAY REED
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SHED BULGE BY WALKING, EATING LESS

Q: My stomach is getting a bit large, and want to do exercise to get rid of it, but sit-ups are out. When I do sit-ups, a feeling goes up in my chest and stays there. Is there another kind of exercise I can do to get rid of a stomach bulge?

M.H., Roanoke

A: See a doctor about the pain before you try any other exercise.

If the doctor gives you the OK for other kinds of conditioning workouts, consider walking.

Experts agree: The ways to shed unwanted bulges are to burn more calories and take in fewer.

Two excellent calorie-control exercises are walking and push-aways. These are done by pushing ourselves away from the dinner table after the first serving.

No visiting the snack bar until the next meal, either. Fat shows up in the very places we want to reduce.

Exercising the stomach muscles is not likely, by itself, to reduce a stomach bulge.

Abdominal workouts tone up the muscles that unwanted weight rides on, but they probably won't burn enough calories to shrink the waistline.

Shrinking is achieved by burning more calories than we take in. Walking is a calorie burner.

No markets in Japan

Q: Why does the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with Japan keep going up when the value of the U.S. dollar keeps decreasing steadily against the Japanese yen? According to your newspaper Feb. 18, the trade deficit with Japan was $65.7 billion for 1994. Why?

C.T., Radford

A: The Japanese market is not really open to U.S. merchandise.

Cars account for half the deficit, and automobile trade flows in just one direction: from there to here. Only a few thousand U.S.-made cars are sold in Japan.

Other key products the United States would like to sell in Japan are insurance, telecommunications and medical equipment.

These should fall under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which covers the United States and other nations. However, U.S. negotiators never have succeeded in getting tough with Japan.

For one reason, the United States can't risk a cutoff of Japanese-made parts for hundreds of thousands of Hondas, Toyotas and Nissans. Nor does it want to risk the jobs associated with selling and servicing cars, televisions and stereos.

How did we get to this point?

After World War II, Japan was viewed by tacticians in Washington as a strategic asset in the Pacific, worth any economic inequity that would preserve U.S. influence there.

As Japan rebuilt its industries, such sectors as aircraft and computers formed alliances in design, manufacturing and marketing to keep foreign companies out of their core technology and business transactions.

There are arguments to the contrary, of course: More than half the Japanese-brand cars now sold in the United States are built here in Japanese-owned plants. About half the parts, though, were manufactured in Japan.

The figures in the merchandise trade deficit tell the outcome of these policies and practices.

Got a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.

by CNB