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. The Cold War thaw, discord in U.S.-Japanese relations over the Iraq-Kuwait crisis of 1990-1991, a protracted U.S. recession, and exigencies of U.S. election-year politics raised new questions about the appropriate U.S. policy toward this Asian ally.

Two groups -- the President's Task Force on U.S. International Broadcasting (December 1991) and the Commission on Broadcasting to the People's Republic of China (September 1992) -- have both recommended that the United States increase broadcasting to China and other Communist countries in Asia, although the panels split on significant points for implementing their recommendations

In recent years, global environmental concerns have figured prominently on the American political agenda. In particular, tropical deforestation and its implications for global climate change and biological diversity loss have prompted public outcry. Concerns have since grown to include other forest types as well. The Congress has considered a variety of legislation to stem the tide of increasing deforestation and the United States has supported a number of bilateral and multilateral initiatives to assist other countries in managing their forest resources.

Japan,s rise as a leading economic power has been attributed to many factors. Increasingly, attention has focused on Japan,s ability to apply innovative technologies to develop new products. Technology development and applications are at the core of a system in which the government and the private sector facilitate industrial policies and practices. Japanese research and development efforts increasingly stress what one Japanese policymaker calls the "fusion" solution, or combining advances in different technologies to generate new products and innovations.