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Japan and the United States: Seeking Security
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14537 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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3 / 1988 |
3,383 Words |
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Michael W. Chinworth
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Relations between the United States and Japan may not be at a critical juncture, but certainly they are facing a very delicate phase of development. The baggage of the Occupation era has long since passed, as has the time when the United States could dictate economic and political relations to Japan. With Japan's emergence as the second largest economic power in the world--and perhaps soon to be the first--the United States can no longer demand and expect prompt responses. Japan has a considerably different view of the world, and as its economic power grows, it will have more leverage to exercise its own options. This is particularly true since Japanese economic dominance is evident in so many critical industrial areas.
On a more immediate level, both nations are undergoing political transformations that promise to change the outlook for management of the relationship. The Reagan administration is nearing the end of its existence. The combination of election year politics, Iran-Contra problems, and failures on the domestic political front--recent Supreme Court nominations come to mind--long ago led many Japanese observers to conclude that it is in fact a lame duck.
On the other side of the Pacific, newly installed Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita is trying to convince his countrymen that he is worthy of the task before him. Not a bold leader in the Nakasone mold, Takeshita is sill trying to grasp control over a government that often places intraparty factional considerations above policy problems. The stronger members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the new cabinet have been tempted by this temporary political void to assert their own mold on government policies. In terms of U.S. relations, this has manifested itself in a "get tough" attitude with the Americans who, in their view, unjustly blame Japan for problems that are of their own making. There is also a concern in Tokyo that Washington sees the Japanese government as vulnerable to outside pressure because of the emergence of a new leader, prompting proponents of a more aggressive stance with the United States to call for a preemptive strike now.
This combination of forces produces the potential for great friction in the bilateral relationship. Furthermore, a broad range of immediate political and economic issues lingers from eight years of sometimes contentious trade negotiations between the two countries. The trade issues reflect misperceptions of one another that must be rectified in order for the alliance to work in the interests of both. It is instructive to examine some of those issues to understand the dynamics at play in the bilateral relationship.
Kansai International Airport
U.S. negotiators are demanding equal access to building projects involved with the construction of a new international airport in Japan's Osaka Bay. Kansai is just one part of a larger series of public works projects anticipated by Japanese government officials to help offset shrinking overseas markets by stimulating domestic demand. Recent news reports suggested that the Japanese government may open up bidding to foreign contractors, but the reality remains that the Japanese domestic industry has virtually declared the Kansai project off limits to outsiders, with the implication that future public works projects will be just as inaccessible to foreign firms. Meanwhile, Japanese-affiliated firms have racked up an enviable track record in the United States,
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