United States military and aid spending in South Vietnam over the past few years has created a booming market for imported consumer goods - but they have mostly come from Japan, not the United States.

The purchasing power of the Vietnamese has increased, but the money has been spent to a large extent on the cheap and attractive goods of the Japanese, Japanese motor-cycles and radios are the most conspicuous of these goods in the teeming capital, Saigon.

The current crisis for the value of the dollar, and the Japanese refusal to re-value the yen, can only make this state of affairs continue to Japan's advantage. Film from the U.S. National Broadcasting Company.

SYNOPSIS: The wartime economy of South Vietnam has created booming market for Japanese goods. Most Vietnamese households have at least one or two Japanese appliances. There are about three million Japanese radios, and half a million Japanese T.V. sets in Vietnam.

The Japanese have sold an estimated one million motor-cycle to a nation whose population is only seventeen million. Even something as Vietnamese as the Ausein, the traditional garment of the women, has been influenced by the Japanese.

They have sold the ladies of South Vietnam on the idea of wearing synthetic fabrics, made in Japan. Much of the business boom has been a product of U.S. Government investment. U.S. military and aid spending have increased the purchasing power of the Vietnamese who are buying more and more consumer goods, but the goods are coming mainly from Japan. The Vietnamese are complaining that while Japan is getting a lot of money out of Vietnam, it isn't doing much in return. The Japanese Government is beginning to respond to the complaints.

The Japanese Government loaned the South Vietnamese Government 4 1/2 million dollars to built a new electric power station in Saigon. Japanese engineers are providing technical assistance for the project, and equipment for the plant will come from Japan. Japanese industry is also making some investments in Vietnam. This assembly plant producing cultivate machines for farmers is a joint venture of Japanese and Vietnamese businessman. The plant employs 100 Vietnam workers, and imports all the parts for the cultivators from Japan.

The Vietnamese hope the Japanese won't take their profits and run. The more optimistic young are learning to speak Japanese, because they feel that Japan will be an important post-war ally. Some of them say Japan was destroyed by war and Japanese did a marvellous job of rebuilding their nation. Maybe they can help the South Vietnamese build Vietnam.