Report Reevaluates Japanese-American Economic Relations

Good economic relations between the United States and Japan will be essential in the 1980s, the leader of a joint committee of Japanese and American businessmen said Friday at the Center for International Affairs (CFIA).

"Japan and the United States in the world of the 1980s have very large body of shared global responsibilities," Jack Button, executive director of the American delegation to the Wiseman's Group, told about 30 people at the Japan Forum of the CFIA.

Because the two nations are the world's two largest trading powers, they share a natural position of leadership, Button explained.

Citing a report the group will submit in January to members of both governments, Button said the U.S. has been slow to learn the pitfalls of its unilateral economic actions and the advantages of cooperation with other nations.

The group-founded on the principle that private citizens can solve problems more effectively than politicians-worked in surprising harmony on the report, Button said, adding, "We found almost no serious disagreements."

The report recommends that Japan play a larger role in world affairs while the U.S., although stronger than ever, must recognize that it is no longer the world leader it was in the 1950s and 1960s, Button said. He declined to give details from the report. The report also states that studying only the statistics of bilateral trade between the two nations can be misleading.

The global trade balance is a better measure of how each nation is doing, Button said, but he added that the imbalance in bilateral trade "remains a political problem."

Button praised the "openness" and the "honesty" of the two groups collaborating on the report and expressed optimism for the "progressive" reforms proposed.