This report describes recent changes in U.S. burdensharing relationships with NATO, Japan and South Korea and, in the process, identifies some implications for U.S. foreign policy.

Since the violent military crackdown around Tiananmen Square, most Western observers have struggled to understand and explain three major questions concerning the Chinese situation: first, why a forward-looking and reform-minded Chinese leadership chose such violent force over a more accommodating approach toward the peaceful public protests of June 1989; second, how to assess current political and economic conditions in China in light of Tiananmen Square; and third, what the events of the last two years mean for China's future prospects.

Discussions in Japan from January 27-February 1, 1991 provided a basis for assessing the prospects for expanding commercial relations with the Soviet Union, perhaps as part of a Soviet/Japanese Summit to convene on April 16. These discussions included key Japanese industrialists, bankers, government officials and academics who influence policy. There was also a meeting of the Soviet-Japanese Business Cooperation Committee during the same period. The conditions from the Japanese perspective for favorable developments would appear to be four:

This report addresses proposals, rationales, and possible objections related to congressional office of constituent assistance.

None

This preliminary assessment summarizes U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps performances during recent war, then relates it to past experience and potential threats in ways that might help decisionmakers determine the most suitable characteristics of U.S. armed forces for the rest of this decade.

Initially, in the 101st Congress, a measure to increase federal minimum wage (and to make numerous other changes in the FLSA) was passed by both the House and the Senate but, in June 1989, it was vetoed by President Bush. An effort by the House to override the President's veto was unsuccessful. Later, new legislation was introduced and approved both by the House and the Senate. On November 17, 1989, President Bush signed the bill (P.L. 101-107).

This report provides a listing of the key primary and secondary sources from which current information can be obtained, as well as suggested sources of further information.

This report discusses the ways in which the United Nations reacted to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 1-2, 1990.

This report lists the 12 adopted United Nations Security Council resolutions relating to the Iraq-Kuwait situation through October 1991. The texts of these resolutions, along with the votes by members of the Council, are included in this report.

None

Resale price maintenance occurs when manufacturers control the prices charged by wholesalers or retailers of their products. In Japan, such activities are prohibited, although certain exemptions are allowed. The U.S. concern over the practice is that it could allow Japanese firms to generate a secure profit base in their home market in order to finance aggressive price competition abroad.

Both the Bush Administration and the new Japanese Government headed by Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa had given considerable importance to the President,s planned trip to Tokyo in late November, now postponed in the interest of attending to domestic concerns.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Mike Mansfield once classified U.S. Japanese relations as "the most important bilateral relationship in the world, bar none." Over the past decade, tensions between the two nations increased markedly, due largely to U.S. concerns over the sharp rise in the U.S. Japan bilateral trade imbalance and to the growing competitive challenge posed by Japan. This paper provides a chronology of major trade events between the United States and Japan from 1980 through 1990 in order to provide a perspective of major trade issues between the two nations. The appendix provides selected data on trade between the two countries over this period.

The following references to the current periodical literature are taken from CRS, public policy literature file (PPLT). Congressional users may request full text of items by phoning 707-5700. Others users should consult their local library.

Trade relations between the United States and Japan in the 1980s were marked by U.S. efforts to pressure Japan to absorb increasingly greater amounts of U.S. exports. The United States sought to improve its steadily worsening bilateral trade deficit with Japan by negotiating to lower barriers to U.S. exports through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the Market Oriented, Sector Selective Talks, the Super 301 process, the Structural Impediments Initiative, and other bilateral fora. The United States succeeded in having Japan take some market-opening measures, and despite fluctuations, U.S. exports to Japan of most of the products which were the subject of negotiations by the two countries between 1985 and 1990 have increased.

In both Japan and in the United States, industrial associations play an important role in enhancing government understanding and interaction with industries and in easing cooperative efforts among firms. This report examines the role of industrial associations and related organizations in high-technology policymaking and in accelerating technological development.

American companies are facing increased competitive pressures from foreign firms. Many observers feel that U.S. firms lag behind their foreign competitors in the development, application, and marketing of new technologies and techniques. The Japanese industrial enterprise is characterized by a large proportion of private sector financing and many other factors, which this report analyzes at length. The question being debated by Congress is whether or not U.S. government programs and policies are an acceptable and effective means of supporting the efforts of American industries to operate in a manner consistent with success in world markets.

Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu's concurrent two-year term as president of the Liberal Democratic party (LDP) and Prime Minister of Japan expires at the end of October 1991. The May 1991 death of Shintaro Abe, the front runner to replace him, opened the field to nearly a dozen candidates. These include Kaifu for another term, senior LDP faction leaders Kiichi Miyazawa, Michio Watanabe, and Hiroshi Mitsuzuka, former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, and several others. A clear favorite from this group has not emerged, in part because most except Kaifu are rumored to be involved in current and past stock market and banking scandals.

This report provides information and analysis for use by Members of Congress as they deliberate on the Japanese response to the Gulf crisis and, perhaps more important, what it may mean for future U.S.-Japanese relations. The first chapter briefly reviews Japanese government actions in response to the crisis, from August 1990 to February 1991. A second section examines in detail the various factors and constraints that affected Japanese policy. The final section offers conclusions and examines implications of the episode for future U.S.-Japanese relations. Published sources for the report are cited in footnotes.

Japan's war reparations following World War II came in two stages. In the first, 1946-1949, U.S. and allied governments arranged for U.S. occupation authorities to ship about $160 million in Japanese industrial equipment to China, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the British colonies in East Asia.

This report is one of a series of CRS reports that examines lobbying and pressure group influence by foreign interests on US public policy.

This Congressional Research Service Report for Congress explains the use of military and civilian space programs to advance satellites for the support of military action.

This report the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601-1651) that eliminated or modified some statutory grants of emergency authority, required the President to declare formally the existence of a national emergency and to specify what statutory authority, activated by the declaration, would be used, and provided Congress a means to countermand the President's declaration and the activated authority being sought.