South Imports

Map Creator: Jade Seguchi ’22, International Relations

During the Cold War period, especially between 1955 and 1975, Japan was a key economic partner to Vietnam. It is essential to point out that such relationship happened with both the North Vietnam (communist regime) and the South Vietnam (ally of the U.S.) regimes. The first had imports coming from Japan, and a significant amount of exports when compared to its neighbor; whose exports were not as important to Japan, therefore not being mentioned. South Vietnam’s imports came mostly from Okinawa, and the main difference with its counterpart was that the south received a great amount of capital from the Japanese country in the form of grants and loans – used to build infrastructure. It is important to notice that no direct military aid was made, since Japan was still under the influence of the Security Treaty with the United States and could not possess troops.