Destinies Shared by Paul Gordon Lauren

Author:Paul Gordon Lauren [Lauren, Paul Gordon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780429718489
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2019-03-04T00:00:00+00:00

The United States and Japan: An Essential Relationship

It is necessary to remind ourselves just how closely Japan and the United States are interlinked. Japan cannot feed itself. It is a nation of 125 million people living in a space slightly smaller than the state of Montana. Japan must import $18 billion worth of agricultural products every year. One-third of this amount comes from the United States. Japan imports more agricultural products from the United States than from any other country. In fact, 20% of all agricultural products exported by the United States goes to Japan, followed by 9% to Holland and 6% to Canada. Japan takes more than three-fourths of all the beef the United States exports, and half of the pork and citrus fruits. More than half of the Japanese soft drink market belongs to Coca Cola. Seventy percent of the razor blades sold in Japan are made by Schick. More than 60% of the top 200 of America's Fortune 500 companies have business ties with Japan. The United States exports more to Japan than to West Germany, France, and Italy combined.

As Japan is dependent on the United States, so is the United States dependent on Japan. One-third of the total exports from Japan to the United States is closely related to U.S. industrial activity. Some $2.2 billion, for example, represents exports to the United States by U.S. industries located in Japan. Another $6.6 billion represents products made in Japan by Japanese industries and shipped to the United States to be sold under the brand names of U.S. manufacturers. Another $8.2 billion represents parts and components to be assembled into U.S. products and sold by U.S. manufacturers. The balance of $4.3 billion includes products not produced in the United States, such as videotape recorders and 35mm cameras. In addition, trade with Japan has created roughly 650,000 jobs in the United States. Of these, approximately 240,000 Americans now work directly for Japanese companies in the United States, and these companies together have invested more than $25 billion in the U.S. economy. From this it can be seen that the manufacturing industries of the United States and Japan are related as your right hand is to your left. Someone coined the word "Amerippon"— for America-Nippon ("Nippon" being the Japanese country name in Japanese)—to illustrate this relationship.

Our two nations have a broad and wide-ranging relationship that goes beyond industry and commerce, including the responsibility they share to maintain global peace and stability, as discussed elsewhere in this book by Michael Armacost and Raymond Wylie. Japan, although often criticized for getting a "free ride" in the global peacekeeping efforts, has the fifth largest defense budget in the world and the second largest among America's nonnuclear allies.

The Japanese Liberal Democratic party has been in power for the forty years that have passed since World War II and has maintained a majority in the Diet. Thus, Japan's leadership has remained relatively stable in comparison to that of the United States, and its government policies have been genuinely consistent.

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