When it finally flies, Japan's FSX fighter jet (top speed: 1,300 m.p.h.) will represent technology at its peak. But the aircraft may represent an even loftier accomplishment in diplomacy, since it has become a centerpiece in the friendly but fierce economic rivalry between the U.S. and Japan. For more than four years, the two governments have been negotiating a joint effort to develop a new generation of fighter jet that would patrol the island nation's shipping lanes and support its defense forces in the 1990s. When a tentative deal was first reached last November, the project drew heavy fire from officials...
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