From: blamb@hri.com (Bill Lambert)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: America Doesn't have a Clue (was Say Yes to Japan)
Date: 23 Dec 92 17:28:40 GMT
Organization: Horizon Research, Inc.


=> In article <7556@bigbird.hri.com.hri.com> blamb@hri.com
=> (Bill Lambert) writes:
=> 
=>  >Japanese business is aggressive and effective, it's true.
=>  >However, the goals as stated above are not their goals
=>  >in any more of a sense than they are the goals of the US.

In article <DIRCEU.92Dec23144719@mikan.taurus.cse.kyutech.ac.jp>, 
dirceu@taurus.cse.kyutech.ac.jp (Dirceu G. Cavendish Jr.) writes:
=> Exactly. Look at the free market trade model USA is trying to sell to
=> latim american countries. People talk about how much of american GNP
=> goes to pay loan's interest to japanese banks. What about the money
=> paid to IMF banks from third world countries. In general, loans taken
=> under obscure conditions (for not saying illegal), bribing high
=> positioned corrupted politicians, the same kind of people one claims
=> is selling USA to Japan...

=>  >The goals of Japanese business and their partnership
=>  >with government and each other is to establish these
=>  >economic targets as a means of securing their national
=>  >defense. When there are few other options available to
=>  >them in the 'traditional' sense of establishing a
=>  >national defense policy, and an autonomous sphere of
=>  >influence even within their own geographical area, then
=>  >I don't see their view can be considered a fault any
=>  >more than we would consider the military actions and
=>  >political moves the US has made in the last 50 years
=>  >to be totally immoral or unfair.

=>  >It's the same attitude in a different domain, and the
=>  >only domain in which the world at large would allow them to 
=>  >play in. That they have done well at it without effective
=>  >political or military influence is a testimony to their 
=>  >efforts. Had we put the same energy in to the same sorts
=>  >of endeavor as they, instead of into the military and political
=>  >spheres, it might be a different story in the economic arena.
=>  >
=>  >But... weeze paid our money and mades our choices.
 
=> Believing that America government plays fairly just makes one fool himself.
=> Stop looking up to the japanese and have a look to the third world countries
=> and their relations with USA to realize how fair is USA government.

My point was not that US government was/is fair, nor that Japanese
economic policies and business was/is fair. My point was that
in relation to perceptions about national defense and national
interests, fairness is in the eyes of the beholder.

Actions taken by them in they arena they perceive as essential
to their national defense and interests we (and others) often 
term as 'unfair'.

Actions taken by us in the political or military arena that
we perceive as serving our national interests are sometimes
perceived as unfair by them (and others). The same sides of
a different coin, so to speak, but fully justified by each
other as true to some 'higher' ideal of national security
and interests.

Some look at this approach to national security as "economic
war", with dominance and pre-emminence as its goal, and
fault that premise, while at the same time bewailing and
whining at the fact that the US is losing it dominance and
pre-emminence, all the while conveniently omitting the fact
that this is their goal for the US.

We made the choice to insure our national security by means
of a dominant and pre-emminent military infrastructure, and
a concentration of effort and resources toward this end. 
The Japanese - lacking such an option - were forced to take
another approach.

Basically, if dominance, pre-emminance, and power are your
goals, and you revel in those things in your country, then
how can you expect someone who exists in the community of
nations with you to ignore your drive for that power, and
not seek balance for that power by some other means?
Otherwise, they exist at your will, and why should you ever
expect them to exist at your will when you would never 
accept existance at their will, or anyone else's for that
matter, at all.

Asserting, or reasserting, your power to overcome theirs
would be 'war' indeed, but who was most influential for
the conditions that portend it?

Are the Japanese the new "Evil Empire"? Other ways, and
other means have to be sought to balance power and insure
each other's national security. Escalation of business
into a mindset of war is not the ultimate answer, and is
a destabilizing influence at best.

- Bill Lambert
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan