Coping with U.S.-Japanese Economic Conflicts

In november 1977, a U. S. trade official led an economic mission to Tokyo to urge changes in Japanese policies. The purpose was to avert what U. S. officials saw as a threatening crisis in bilateral economic relations. He was chosen, in part, for his modest rank and low-key personal style, because the United States's objective was to press issues strongly but privately. Instead, the mission provoked a media storm in Tokyo-so much of a storm that, when the emissary callled upon Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda, he was greeted with the words, "I am happy to meet the most famous man in Japan.