The Chrysanthemum and the Eagle. Ryuzo Sato

       PREFACE

      Several years ago when reporters asked Crown Prince Naruhito to describe the qualities he was looking for in a future wife, he replied, “I want to marry someone who has the same sense of values that I have.”

      Although the concept of values is taken very seriously in both the United States and Europe, it has attracted little public attention in Japan until recently. Even the expression that means “values” in Japanese is not very old. If we think about it, however, frictions are bound to arise in any relationship—be it a marriage or a relationship between two countries—if the two partners have major differences in priorities, in the things that each side considers important in their lives. If partners don’t share similar values, they will have to spend enormous amounts of energy reaching an agreement.

      When my book The Chrysanthemum and the Eagle first came out in Japanese, George Bush was president of the United States. In 1994, Bill Clinton resides in the White House, and Morihisa Hosokawa is Japan’s prime minister. Much has been made of the fact that this is the first Democratic administration in twelve years and that Clinton is the youngest president since John Kennedy. But more important than these superficial changes is the change in values they represent. An understanding of these values is likely to be crucial for understanding the personality of the Clinton administration and may also offer insights that will help us predict the future direction of U.S.–Japanese relations.

      President Clinton has been described as a rare individual who was elected despite public misgivings about his avoidance of the draft, use of marijuana, and marital infidelity. Considering that twenty or thirty years ago the presidential hopes of men like Adlai Stevenson and Nelson Rockefeller were blighted merely because they were divorced, the criteria for judging the qualities American voters are looking for in their political leaders have clearly undergone a major change. American values have changed with the times.

      If the key words of the Clinton administration are “values for a new generation,” how will this be reflected in U.S.–Japanese relations? First, this administration will not be bound by ideology or labels, but will be results-oriented. This will mean a tougher policy toward process-oriented Japan—Japan will be told to show results and not try to get by with explanations or excuses. Furthermore, the participation of women in public affairs will be greater than ever. Barbara Bush was famous for being a good wife in the traditional sense of the word, devoted to playing a supportive but clearly subordinate role to her husband. Hillary Rodham Clinton projects the image of the modern career woman with abilities and values of her own, who is capable of carving out a position for herself independent of her husband’s status or occupation. In that sense, the fact that career woman Masako Owada will one day become empress may provide the rest of the world with a new insight into Japan—the Japanese sense of values may not be quite so different as some people have tended to believe.

      Apart from the much ballyhooed appointments of women and minorities to the cabinet, the new administration has no notable star players. Such a lineup is perhaps suited to the multifaceted operations it will have to undertake. Now that the world has plunged headlong into the post-cold war era, the United States urgently needs to make the shift from a military to a peacetime economy. Yet ethnic conflicts, no longer held in check by the two superpowers, are multiplying. As the flames of ethnic hatreds flare up all over the globe, a number of problems must be dealt with simultaneously. The situation calls for team work rather than for the grandstand plays of such famous former secretaries of state as John Foster Dulles, Robert McNamara, Henry Kissinger, or James Baker.

      Although I have used the expression “a change in values” to describe the new administration, that does not mean that everything has changed overnight. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the fundamental concepts on which the United States was founded, remain a constant source of American values despite the transfer of power. Still, as I discuss in this book, the weight given to each of these rights changes to reflect the political philosophy—conservative or liberal—of the president in power.

      If,