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$ Some Japanese argue that even if the country wanted to become a military superpower, it could not. They contend that the country is physically too small and is too easily susceptible to bombing and blockade. On the other hand, some Japanese believe that the day may come when they will have no choice but to bolster their forces. "The Japanese are pragmatic people," says Kase. "If the Americans withdraw and the Philippines or Korea goes Communist, we could consider it."
A U.S. pullout from Japan, however, is highly unlikely. Along with Britain and Israel, Japan is the junior partner in one of the U.S.'s few truly special relationships. The two nations engage in ventures ranging from joint development of a $6.5 billion jet fighter known as the FSX to intelligence gathering on North Korean radicals in advance of the Seoul Olympics. "There will continue to be a tremendous mutual dependence between the U.S. and Japan," says Historian Edwin Reischauer, author of The Japanese Today and former U.S. Ambassador to Tokyo. "If they turned uncooperative it would be a disaster for us, but it would also be a disaster for them."
Two cases in point. Before the Reagan Administration offered a new medium- range nuclear missile proposal to the Soviet Union in 1986, the White House sent retired General Edward Rowny to clear it with Tokyo. The Japanese were horrified by a provision that would have left some Soviet SS-20 missiles in Asia within striking distance of Japan. When Rowny reported back to Washington, Tokyo's objections helped kill the plan. The Asian missiles will be dismantled under the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev last December.
During last October's stock-market crash, Japan advised its investment houses to hold their shares in U.S. companies. The restraint helped keep the collapse from becoming more devastating than it was. Japan performed a similar service in March 1987 when the dollar went into a free fall. In a two-pronged effort, Tokyo fund managers held their U.S. securities, while the Bank of Japan bought dollars to stem the slide. The bank's U.S. currency holdings grew from $1 billion to $15 billion.
Yet a new sourness has crept into U.S.-Japanese relations that goes beyond the familiar Japan-bashing by Washington and protestations of innocence by Tokyo. Americans felt betrayed last year when Toshiba Machine Co. illegally sold sensitive defense technology to the Soviet Union. At the same time, U.S. worries over signs of an American decline easily shade into bitterness against a Japan whose wealth seems to dwarf its responsibilities to the rest of the world. For their part, many Japanese have wearied of incessant U.S. nagging about trade issues and now express some satisfaction over the image of a bumbling Uncle Sam.
In the past year, Tokyo has spurred consumer demand at home and relied less on exports to fuel its economy, thus blunting charges of predatory trading practices. But Japan continues to refuse to allow the yen to be used as an international reserve currency, a move that would help protect nations that trade with Japan against wide foreign-exchange swings.