World: Toward the Japanese Century

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engulfed in mist, sit down to wait until the fog clears." There are, however, a few details that will not wait. The U.S.-Japan mutual security treaty comes up for reconsideration in June; Sato intends to keep it in effect, though the negotiations are likely to be punctuated by student demonstrations. Sato's majority in the Diet rules out serious parliamentary oppo sition, and now that he has secured the return of Okinawa from the U.S., the protests may be muted as well.

Richard Nixon has described U.S.

Japanese cooperation as "the linchpin for peace in the Pacific," and last week he emphasized that a "cooperative re lationship" between Tokyo and Washington is a must for the area. William Bundy, former Assistant Secretary of State for the Far East, agrees. Says Bundy, now attached to M.I.T.: "We consult with the British daily on a broad range of issues. We do the same thing with the Japanese, only more deeply and more intensively."

How long the relationship can en dure will depend not on U.S. wishes but Japan's own self-interest. Right now, its interests ally it to the U.S., but they could change as Japan enlarges its role in Asia. In Alternative in Southeast Asia, former World Bank President Eu gene Black argues that "there is very little prospect that Japan will be willing to become a political, much less a military, partner of the U.S. in Southeast Asia." Nor should the U.S. press too hard for such a partnership, he adds, for "the real danger is that we will, wit tingly or unwittingly, force the Japanese to choose rearmament rather than co operation in the years ahead."

Different Dreams

Economist Keiji Sakamoto puts it an other way. "If the U.S. produced a chart of where it wants Japan to go in the coming years," he says, "Japan would accept it. But whether it would follow an the chart is expression: another 'Dosho imu'—Same matter. — We Same have bed, different dreams."

Eisaku Sato's dream, as he expressed it in a speech two weeks ago, is to make the 1970s "an era when Japan's na tional power will carry unprecedented weight in world affairs." Japan should be a "content but not arrogant" coun try, he said, whose example would in spire "the whole world to agree that the human race is far richer for Ja pan's existence." Whether Japan can serve as a model for the rest of the world, or even the rest of Asia, is, how ever, doubtful. In climate, in resources, but above all, in the will and skill of its people, the country is unique.

That, of course, is Japan's strength.

It has also proved to be an endless source of fascination for Western travelers, who are invariably, and rightly, en chanted by the rugged beauty of its mountains and the exquisite manners of its people. For one of Japan's ear liest Western advocates, Lafcadio Hearn, the main thing was "the viewless pressure of numberless past generations" at work in the country. These days the focus is on the future generations of Japan. No one knows what pressures they will feel, but one thing is cer tain: Japan will, as Sato says, carry weight.