The economic white paper of Japan in 1994 opens with "The economy keeps changing and never remains where it was a moment ago". This reminds me of Hojoki, a classical literature of Japan. Due to the strong yen, price destruction, hollowing of industries, internal and external price differences, and the rapid growth of the East Asian economic sphere, the refractories industry of Japan is afraid of a hollowing phenomenon in the trend of inflow of overseas products and an intensive economic competition without border as well as other industries, where there is a mixture of optimism and pessimism. The issue of internal and external price differences already existed twenty years ago when domestic manufacturers fought against overseas counterparts over receiving orders. At that time, refractories produced by overseas manufactures mainly consisted of natural raw materials (mined in their own countries), while the ratio of synthetic materials was high in Japan-produced refractories and the cost rose as a result. The strong yen has expanded the relative differential of personnel expenses and spurred the internal and external price differences. This trend is closely related to the progress of the Japanese steel industry. The inclination toward high-grade refractories with long life has proceeded with the development of highly purified and giant crystallized raw materials and quality specification of bricks and reliability, which resulted in increases in development expenses and costs. On the other hand, this brought the refractories technology of Japan to the top level in the world.
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