Japanese beef prices [are] up 25% over the past year.”

The Seattle Times notes that in Japan, for example, a half-pint of milk that cost 9 cents in 1968 cost 16 cents in mid-1973.

Economic problems in the past have resulted in governments being voted out of power. In some countries, they have caused the overthrow of government by violence.

Typical of the concern is the comment that the Seattle Times makes regarding Japan: “Government and business leaders, shaken by Communist and Socialist gains in the last election, have announced that they fear popular unrest and a serious challenge to Japan’s capitalist system.”