U.S. Policy and Japan: Beyond self-indulgence

Bilateral relations between the United States and Japan now rival those with the Soviet Union in overall importance. Unfortunately, the United States has engaged in self-indulgence by blaming Japan for a variety of ills, many of which reflect U.S. weaknesses rather than Japanese perfidy. Perhaps more seriously, U.S. demands on Japan are frequently lacking in coherence and reflect the demands of particular sections of the U.S. polity. We suggest three positive lines of U.S. policy. Deficit reduction by the United States would remove most of the genuine macroeconomic ills from U.S.-Japanese relations. We also recommend a unique approach to a chronic microeconomic problem: Japan’s “invisible trade barriers.” Finally, we counsel a division of labor in foreign and defense policy between the United States and Japan which would accept Japan as a full partner and urge her to support mutually chosen policies rather than ones dictated by Washington.