U.S. Needs to Shed Its ‘Japan Phobia,’ Tokyo Official Says

TOKYO —  The United States should shed its “Japan phobia” so the two countries can join forces to lead the world economy, a senior Japanese official said today.

“We are at a turning point,” Masaru Yoshitomi, director of the Economic Planning Agency’s research institute, told reporters. “Japan and the United States can (assume) . . . economic co-leadership.”

The United States can no longer enjoy its dominant position because its military security is partly supported by Japanese technology and because its economy is partly dependent on Japanese capital, he said.

“This (dependency) has created a sort of phobia in America against Japan,” Yoshitomi said.

He warned that the two countries’ latest drive to attack their basic economic faults could backfire if it creates false expectations in the U.S. Congress of a speedy reduction in their bilateral trade gap.

“The present effort carries the danger of backfiring,” he said.

But he said that if anti-Japan fears can be alleviated, the two nations together can work out what is best for world trade, solve the Third World debt crisis and even establish a new international monetary system.