Maximizing U.S. Interests in Science and Technology Relations with Japan: Report of the Defense Task Force (1995)

Summary: The environment surrounding the U.S.-Japan alliance and defense technology cooperation has changed considerably. Most American and Japanese experts recognize the value of maintaining a strong bilateral alliance, but are unsure about how it will evolve in the future. The fall of the Soviet Union, questions about how China will exercise its growing influence, and security challenges left over from the Cold War, such as the continuing division of the Korean peninsula, combine to form an uncertain security environment in the Asia-Pacific region. Continuing large imbalances in the U.S.-Japan economic relationship and growing industrial rivalry have had a corrosive effect on goodwill between the two countries. The traditional pattern of defense technology cooperation involving a one-way flow of technology from the United States to Japan has been subjected to increasing scrutiny and criticism.