Yes, No Progress

Superficially at least, it was a big advance over the last time Japanese Premier Kiichi Miyazawa met with an American President: there were no digestive mishaps, and by quoting the song Yes! We Have No Bananas, Miyazawa made light of Bill Clinton's remark to Boris Yeltsin that Japanese say yes when they mean no. As for substance, however, Clinton's first U.S.-Japanese summit did not mark much of a change in the relations between the two countries. "Let's not paper this over," said Clinton. "There are differences still between the Prime Minister and me." Japanese markets, he insisted, "must be more open."