Japan-U.S. relations are more uncertain and subject to greater strain today than at any time since World War II. Longstanding military allies and increasingly interdependent economic partners, Japan and the United States have worked closely together to build a strong, multifaceted relationship based on democratic values and interests in world stability and development. But Japan today is our foremost economic and technological competitor.

Congress continues to debate NASA's Europe, Japan, and Canada to build the plan to build a permanently occupied space station. They plan to provide station. Controversial since its inception in 1984, the space station, called Freedom for many years, was redesigned several times. Now it is tentatively called Alpha.