We need to propagate the kind of entrepreneurial vitality displayed by U.S. venture businesses, including the way they celebrate diversity and honor individuality. Bringing that kind of vitality to bear in blazing new industrial sectors could contribute immensely to reinvigorating the Japanese economy. Another area where we have a great deal to learn from the United States is deregulation. The present dynamism of the U.S. economy owes a lot to deregulation that the United States began undertaking in the late 1970s in transport, telecommunications, and other sectors. I am impressed at the leadership exhibited by the U.S. government in implementing that deregulation.
Japan has every reason, therefore, to work to develop even closer ties with the United States.
Those ties can and should be a basis for us to make an increased contribution to economic development in Asia and worldwide. In that spirit, we should welcome the agreement that the U.S. and Japanese governments reached recently in the automotive sector. Failure to reach an agreement would have dealt a severe blow to the industries and the entire economies of both nations. It would have affected the world trading system and the global economy adversely. We need to recognize, however, that economic frictions will continue to arise between the United States and Japan as our relationship deepens.