None

With Japan the United States has had one of its most important and most difficult trading relationships. Japan ranks second to Canada as the largest U.S. export market. It is also the second largest single source of imports to the United States. Trade issues are likely to become even more important as the whole U.S.-Japanese relationship changes in the post-Cold War period. How each country views and reacts to the other is changing as economic issues replace foreign policy and national security issues as the driving force of the relationship.

None

None

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.

With Japan the United States has had one of its most important, and, at the same time, one of its most difficult, trading rela- tionships. Japan ranks second to Canada as the largest U.S. export market. It is also the largest single source of imports to the United States.