To take on the role as an initiator means we must also be able to take on the role of arbitrator. That is, we must think carefully what constitutes a real leadership role in this mutually dependent world. I do not think anybody imagined a decade ago that these two superpowers would be mutually dependent on each other in a military sense and that there would be a strange structure in the power balance among the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan. Nobody can deny that we are going to have a totally new configuration in the balance of power in the world. Facing this, most important to Japan in the practical sense is the relationship between Japan and the United States.
Japan needs the United States.
I think the United States need Japan as well. Since we can never separate, we had better look for the way to develop through cooperation a healthy relationship through cooperation. When you see present conditions, it is obvious that the United States is not strong enough in a fundamental and structural sense. We will be in trouble as will the whole world if the United States is not strong enough in the fundamentals and this means more than talking about something that is current. It must be recognized by Mr. Bush as well.