Your "nobody cares anymore about the Japanese economy" line rather elides the fact that Japan is underwriting American wars and the vast, and increasing, US budget deficit. It's not that "nobody cares", it's that these facts are embarrassing for the current US administration to acknowledge.

I think the Japan becoming an American creditor is much more difficult for the average American to understand than past trade friction, and you are right: the government would rather avoid talking about Japan than try using it as a scapegoat.

it is the japanese govt-the govt of the country that has "forever renounced war"...at the behest of america-that would rather avoid talking about the relationship (under the table) it has with america, in fact.

actually, china is underwriting mad king george's debt

momus & josh: Both Japan and China are large holders of both US$ for currency reserves and of US T-Bonds. Yes they help finance US debt. Its very easy to build up a straw man argument against President Bush around this idea but since it goes back much farther than the current adminsitration, the idea is not even entertaining as a conspiracy theory. Leave that sort of thing to Michael Moore since he will at least try to divert the viewer from the weakness of the argument by dressing it up with flashy MTV style montages. I came across some more constructive thinking on this matter by Thomas Barnett. Here is a translated interview with him from the Nihon Keizei Shinbun (thats like the Wall Street Journal of Japan). If you find that at all interesting, there is lots of other worthwhile reading on his site.

marxy: Interesting idea for a post, but kind of poorly executed IMNSHO. Yoshinoya is a bad example of a potential target for American anger since they were in fact the number one consumer of US beef in Japan (sorry I dont have the link to that stat). Its also a bit sad to see you toe the LDP's party line of calling US beef "diseased". You know something about statistics so you know that per capita, domestic cattle have a higher infection rate than North American cattle. Additionally we've had plenty of news items of domestic cattle producers being caught out trying to pass off infected cattle as healthy. AFAICT this is a smoke screen trade battle to cover up larger domestic/import food safety problems. A while back they found organic waste in shumai imported from South Korea and before that there was a scare about Chinese spinache that was dosed with very high levels of pesticides banned by the Japanese farm ministry. Was there a trade sanction on either of those countries? How about all the cases of mislabeled domestic food products or the dairy products which were found to be tainted time and time again? I'll bet that Yoshinoya and other beef importers just didnt have to connections with the LDP to avoid thier particular case becoming headline news.

If we were going to be "fair and balanced" we might also take a look at the various domestic publications over the last 15 years which demonized US business methods. Didnt Governor Ishihara write something along those lines... FYI, my friends at various investment banks inform me that "The Book of Five Rings" is still part of the in house libraries at pretty much every 証券会社. Just because it no longer makes headlines, that doesnt mean it doesnt exist. I respect your right to left wing thinking, but when it bleeds over into a sloppy style of writing that would not even pass the low editorial standards of the Weekly Worker, that I gotta call BS on.

Sorry, my link to Barnett's website did not work. It should be http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/archives2/001380.html

I have alot of trouble with the way Movable Type parses inline HTML. I wish I knew where to find a HOWTO for posting or at least a list of what HTML tags will or will not pass.

I kind of meant this as a light-hearted rib at American attitudes towards Japan than a ground-breaking investigative piece about tainted food and T-bonds. And your thing about "not making the headlines" is exactly my point: I was only thinking about public perceptions of Japan and what that says about the current situation.

Oboy. Can't be easy getting slapped in the face no matter what direction you turn your head. Ganbatte Marxy.

Can't be easy getting slapped in the face no matter what direction you turn your head

So I've noticed.

I recall reading a bright and sunny gloat piece in FOREIGN POLICY a year or two ago bragging about how the feared Japanese economic takeover had failed -- it was basically making fun of people who'd believed in the Japanese 'method' of dominating production; pointing out that it hadn't steamrolled the world. This was part of a larger series of pieces on 'failed ideologies' or something like that.

-sl