Rudyard Kipling was wrong when he wrote that "East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet." From the marble halls of congress to the paneled conference rooms of Wall Street, from Spartanburg, South Carolina's textile mills to California's Silicon Valley, Americans are now obliged to consider Japan's economic and political actions. And in Japan, the stock market rises and falls with the U.S. dollar and the New York Stock Exchange, while the first foreign visit that a new prime minister makes is to Washington, D.C. In a thousand different ways and for the foreseeable future, the fates and fortunes of the United States and Japan are intertwined.
But there are problems in the relationship, including a serious trade imbalance, too-high tariffs and quotas in Japan, rising protectionist sentiment in the United States, debate about the strategic relationship of Japan and the United States, and the relative strengths of the yen and the dollar. To explore these problems and find some solutions, THE WORLD & I went to leading authorities in the Untied States and Japan.
Michael Chinworth, director of the Science and Technology Japan Program at MIT, states that with Japan's emergence as the world's No. 2 economic power, the United States "can no longer demand and expect prompt responses." The United States, he suggests, must put aside grandiose pronouncements and moral judgments and instead provide "precise objectives" that meet Tokyo's needs while keeping Japan in the Western sphere. It is critical, Chinworth and other experts emphasize, to prevent economic considerations from overriding important strategic concerns.
Japan is responding to the call of the United States and other nations that its economic policies harmonize more with those of the international community, argues Kazuo Tanikawa, senior deputy secretary-general of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party. He points to the 1985 reforms that aimed at directing the country's export-oriented economy and to Prime Minister Takeshita's new economic plan, which will soon be announced. Takeshita, he says, has emphasized "his determination to orient the Japanese economy toward international coordination."
Edward Lincoln of the Brookings Institution says both the United States and Japan must resist "strong domestic imperatives" that could pull them apart, and work together to maintain their present close economic and strategic relations. He warns against the twin dangers of "Japanese hubris" and American protectionism. While offering a sometimes gloomy assessment, Lincoln notes that more and more Japanese are asking why products should cost so much more in Tokyo than in other capitals. Also, Japanese businessmen are increasingly switching to imports. "These developments," he speculates, "may bring about a domestic constituency that favors free trade for the first time since the war."
Japan's domestic politics are analyzed by Ryuichiro Hosokawa, a well-known TV commentator in Japan and former editor in chief of the Mainichi Daily News in Tokyo. His conclusion is simple: "There does not appear to be any possibility in the near future for opposition parties to take power from the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party)." He traces the LDP's political success to its consistent ability to provide the right prime minister at the right time.
On the question of Japan's defense
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