Japan Bashing on the Campaign Trail

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Twelve years ago -- back in those innocent days when candidate Ronald Reagan was pledging to balance the budget by cutting taxes, and first-time presidential contender George Bush was crowing that he was "up for the '80s" -- former Treasury Secretary John Connally embarked on a bold strategy in his quest for the G.O.P. nomination. In place of the Soviet Union and the Ayatullah's Iran, Connally concocted an entirely different American enemy: a small and peaceable island nation called Japan. Connally blustered that unless the Japanese practiced fair trade, "they'd better be prepared to sit on the docks of Yokohama in their Toyotas watching their Sony sets, because they aren't going to ship them here." His reward for being a visionary: Connally won precisely one delegate.

Fast-forward to the 1992 campaign and suddenly almost the entire field of challengers -- from Pat Buchanan on the Republican right to Senator Tom Harkin on the Democratic left -- is singing out of the old Connally hymnbook. An artfully contrived TV spot depicts Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey guarding a hockey net while warning the Japanese that "if we can't sell in their market, they can't sell in ours." Harkin vows to send a similarly shrill message to Tokyo: "We're going to reduce our trade deficit with you, Japan, down to zero in five years. Two ways you can do it: buy more or sell us less." Even soft- spoken Democrat Paul Tsongas cracks, "The cold war is over, and Japan won." And if Buchanan puts "America First," guess what country is last?

Judging from tough-guy rhetoric alone, it might appear that America is spoiling for a fight and, with the Soviet Union on the dustheap of history, Japan is the only serious adversary around. But the spate of Japan baiting mostly follows Teddy Roosevelt's maxim in reverse: loud talk and little stick. No presidential contender is reckless enough to portray Japan as the Evil Economy. America's congenital optimism may be cowering in the corner, but the candidates -- and most voters -- recognize that the roots of the nation's problems lie within the 50 states. Still, in the sound-bite derby for the White House, Japan's affluence and economic nationalism make tempting targets. Japan owes its current prominence to, along with the recession, the President's sorrowful swoon at the Sparkplug Summit in Tokyo. Never before has the nation's Globe-Trotter in Chief seemed so woefully ill prepared on foreign soil. Bush was unable to articulate a coherent rationale, other than pity, for why Japan should liberalize its economic system to reduce its trade surplus with the U.S. With a carping chorus of car executives and a patronizing lecture from Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, the Bush visit became the free- trade version of Jerry Ford's WIN (for Whip Inflation Now) buttons.

Any presidential pratfall automatically becomes a big issue, especially when six candidates in the two parties are gunning for the job. Democratic trade moderates could suddenly sound tough by attacking Bush's performance in Japan without embracing strident protectionism. Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton needles the President: "When the Japanese Prime Minister said that he felt sympathy for the U.S., it made me sick. If I'd been there with him, I'd have thrown up too."