Some Japanese Views on United States-Japan Relations in the 1980s

Abstract

THE RELATIONSHIP that has bound the United States and Japan together for the past thirty-five years has been a close one, with each side recognizing the vital interest it has maintaining strong ties with its partner. From time to time, however, there have been frictions that, while never seriously threatening the relationship, have given rise to frustrations and even bitterness on both sides of the alliance. It has often been said that these difficulties are the result of a communications gap or an information gap. While these explanations are valid, it might, however, be more helpful to describe the source of friction as an gap in which the perceptions the two nations have of their respective roles, as well as the expectations each has of its partner, are at variance with each other. Throughout the postwar period, both countries have experienced tremendous changes, internally as well as their respective positions the international community. The mutual reassessments and readjustments that these changes have necessitated the bilateral relationship have often been slow coming, thus causing difficulties. While Japan has continued to rely upon the United States, emphasizing its limitations and vulnerability vis-ai-vis the rest of the world, the United States has harped upon the necessity of Japan's assuming a greater share of global responsibility. At other times, when Japan, on the basis of its economic strength, has sought to exercise its growing power, the United States has tended to continue to play the dominant role, regarding Japan as the weak partner and making demands to which Japan has usually acquiesced. As the international scene becomes more fluid the years ahead, such frictions will grow unless each nation more clearly appreciates both the constraints and the capabilities of its partner.