Some Japanese Say FSX Pact Unfair to Them

The revision of a U.S.-Japan pact to develop jointly a new fighter plane for Japan’s air force drew fire today from Japanese critics who say Tokyo gave too much away and got too little in return.

And some political analysts said the kind of pressure the United States exerted in the new deal could, over time, help push Tokyo toward more independent economic and security policies.

President Bush said Friday that the two governments have decided, after months of wrangling, that U.S. firms will get 40% of development and production work on the project.

The project in total is estimated to be worth $8 billion.

In the new pact, which revises one reached in November, Tokyo also bowed to U.S. demands that the United States have access to the cutting-edge technology Japanese firms develop for the FSX fighter.

Japanese Defense Minister Kichiro Tazawa praised the new pact Saturday, but Japanese newspaper editorials today heaped criticism on it.

‘Few Rewards for Japan’

“Viewed from the starting point of several years ago when the Defense Agency made independent development (of the FSX) its object, this was the worst possible conclusion,” said an editorial in the financial daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun. “It has ended in a form which has few rewards for Japan,” the paper said.

A Defense Agency spokesman said today that Japan will now have to develop its own computer programs for the weapons system since the United States would not give access to the source codes.

U.S. pressure highlighting a view of Japan as an economic rival rather than a trusted ally could erode pro-U.S. sentiment in Japan, some analysts said.

“One of the biggest invisible assets in America’s global strategy is the very strong pro-American sentiment in Japan,” political scientist Kuniko Inoguchi said. “To play around with it, or to behave in a way that the U.S. may eventually erode that national sentiment, is a big loss for the United States,” he said.