Facts and Emotions: The Week That Was : Difference between bashing (Japan, or America) and reality
Make no mistake about it. There is a factual dimension to the current rumble in U.S-Japanese relations and there is a visceral, sometimes even racist, side. The job for America is to focus on the facts and stop getting taken off course by the destructive emotion.
There is nothing wrong with Americans being patriotic. That’s one fact. There is also nothing wrong with trying to create more jobs for Americans, rather than sending work to foreigners overseas. That’s another fact. But what’s not a fact is that the Japanese are responsible for every problem with the U.S. economy, or that Sumitomo Corp., the well-regarded Japanese firm that built the Blue Line here but Wednesday lost the contract to build the Green Line, is evil incarnate--or is somehow responsible for rising unemployment in Southern California. Those thoughts are not facts. They are absurdities. And emotions.
But emotions can become facts of American political life, and when one observes how quickly local politicians were able to beat the “America First” tom-tom last week in rallying support against Sumitomo, it’s obvious that some politicians may try to ride into office on Japanese backs.
BASHING: Let’s put the matter into perspective. Japan has been a close ally. It does buy U.S. goods--though surely not nearly as many as America would like, which is why there is a $40-billion-plus trade imbalance in Japan’s favor. Yes, the Japanese are tough economic customers and trade negotiators. But they are equal-opportunity tough: Just ask the Mexicans, or any of the Europeans.
Still, it’s true, some Japanese officials are not above a little America-bashing. Earlier this week a Japanese politician let go with a tasteless tirade about how U.S. workers are “lazy and illiterate.” That’s nonsense, too--it’s scarcely a fact. And if the Japanese want Americans to cool the Japan-bashing rhetoric, they’ve got to cut out the America-bashing.
Another fact is that the Japanese are going to have to open up their markets more to American businesses. It’s that simple, and anything less from Japan will only fuel the raging fires of protectionism in the U.S. Congress. Closed, or barely ajar, trade doors in Japan will also fuel a “Buy America” prairie fire. That could lead to serious trade protectionism. That would be bad for the Japanese--not only is the U.S. market important to them, but so are the markets of U.S. allies. Tokyo should not want it to get to the point where, for example, the European Community has to choose between Tokyo and Washington.
And trade barriers would be bad for the American consumer. They could limit choices and raise prices.
IMPROVING: But the “Buy America” movement could have one big benefit. It could focus the nation’s attention on the need to improve itself. It could lead to greater competitiveness, and increase our industrial-policy smarts. For instance, why--with this region on the verge of a plunge into mass rail transit--does America have only one firm in all the country manufacturing rapid transit cars? And why--while we’re at it--has America let so many other things slip over the years?
Facts are not emotions, but emotions can lead the nation to confront unpleasant facts. That’s the positive side, if there is one, to the current fixation on Japan. Another good result is that over in Japan, some people may be getting the message. On Friday Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa made a pointed speech aimed at easing tensions. He reminded his countrymen that “Japan could not have achieved its postwar prosperity” without America’s “good-hearted support.” Concluded Miyazawa, “Yet today the United States faces some problems of its own, and Japan should make every effort to cooperate with the United States as it works to overcome these problems.”
And that’s a fact.
