U.S. Actions Boost Japan’s Rising Arrogance

Americans are committing a colossal error in their relations with Japan. We are fostering attitudes of arrogance and superiority among Japanese leaders that could rebound to hurt us.

Throughout Japan’s history the pendulum of the national psyche has swung between feelings of inferiority and superiority toward the outside world. Commodore Matthew Perry’s black ships with their cannons and industrial technology engendered feelings of inferiority in Japan, until military victories in Asia changed them to feelings of superiority. Defeat in 1945 reversed those feelings, but now Japan’s mood is swinging back toward superiority.

Americans returning from Japan often mention a new arrogance among younger Japanese. During a recent parliamentary exchange with Japan’s Diet, American congressmen were stunned by a 45-minute lecture by a freshman Japanese representative on what the United States was doing wrong to resolve trade issues.

Many an American exporter has had his product dismissed because the Japanese consider it to be of poor quality. The trend is to view the United States as a place where lawyers overrule engineers and where consumption, not production, is king. The explosion of the space shuttle Challenger has become a symbol of American decline.

The Japanese attitude of superiority in the scientific and technological arena is apparent in their absence at international science conferences, which they once attended in droves. When one is ahead, why bother?

Should the Japanese attitude matter to Americans? Yes. Traditionally, America has been considered superior--an awe-inspiring, technological giant. Japanese, therefore, have willingly put up with American ignorance of things Japanese and conceded to U.S. demands.

Note, however, Japanese treatment of other countries to which they feel superior. Thais, Koreans, Taiwanese and some Europeans fully appreciate the implications of being on the “inferior” end of a relationship with Japan.

Americans contribute to these attitudes in Japan in several ways. First, by Japan-bashing--especially in making Japan a scapegoat for domestic U.S. economic problems. By blaming Japan for our own failings, we breed arrogance and disdain for things American. The Japanese know full well that, despite all the rhetoric, they are not the primary cause of the U.S. trade deficit.

We further foster attitudes of superiority by asking Japan to cover for our inability to act. We are unable to devise a strategic policy for the steel or automobile industries, so we ask Japan to impose export restraints. While such ad hoc policies might calm domestic political waters, they place the United States in an inferior position in the Japanese hierarchy. In the Japanese mind, inferiors ask for favors; superiors grant them.

To make matters worse, we have allowed ourselves to become indebted to Japan. Over the past two years Japan has invested more than $75 billion in the American economy, much of which winds up financing the U.S. budget deficit. Who can blame the lender for feeling superior to the borrower?

And, finally, the constant American carping about unfairness appears to Japan to be a tactic typical of an aging champion who never worried about fairness as long as he was on top.

A Japan with strong attitudes of superiority could be a much different beast with which to deal. Meaningful trade concessions could be even more elusive. Witness the meager concessions that Japan grants to other Asians or to some European nations. If negotiating with Japan now is difficult, try dealing with a country that is looking down its collective nose at U.S. representatives.

Isolationism, even militarism, could re-emerge in Japan. American forces could be asked to leave. If protecting the American West Coast is a formidable task from U.S. bases in Japan, how would it be from Pearl Harbor, with the Japanese Imperial Navy also prowling the Pacific?

What, then, should Americans do? First, we need to be both specific and accurate in our criticisms; we should avoid Japan-bashing for domestic political gain. Second, we should stop asking Japan for voluntary restraints and take control over our trade policy; if quotas are to be imposed, let the American side manage them. Third, we need to contain our own spending and stop piling up debts. Fourth, we should drop the fairness theme and focus more on Japan’s responsibility as an advanced industrial nation. And, fifth, American businesses must speed up their quest for higher quality.

These actions certainly would not stop the rise of the Japanese sun. However, such measures should keep Japanese attitudes in perspective and curb their growing perception that the United States is a whimpering nation quick to blame others but unwilling to do its own homework.