Japan-bashing rears its ugly head in U.S.

By Edward Neilan

Instead of encouragement, American leaders and media criticize Tokyo's every move.

TOKYO (JP): Returning to Tokyo after two months of re-charging intellectual and inspirational batteries at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, walking along the California seashore and quick visits to Washington DC and Richmond, Virginia, I can report a resurgence of "Japan-bashing" afoot in America.

Most of the emotion is misplaced.

Japan is merely a handy target for the frustrations accompanying the prolonged Asian financial crisis which no one at the White House, Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury, U.S. Trade Office, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank or the big think tanks knows what to do about.

They have all figured out, despite their rampant Eurocentrism and "why can't you be more like us?" mentality, that more Asian economic gloom may start to seriously affect the booming American economy.

You see, so far the U.S. has generally benefited from the Asian crunch. The low-cost shoes from China, shirts from Indonesia, baskets from Thailand, computer peripherals from Taiwan, place-mats from the Philippines, Toyota automobiles from Japan, pants and auto parts from South Korea pouring into the U.S. help keep inflation and interest rate increases at bay.

China gets praised for its "stability" in holding the line but that is because only half the China economy is what we could call a free market. The rest is controlled tighter than Grandma's pursestrings. If the financial dykes break on China's Three Gorges Dam project and others -- real floods are already threatening the project -- the whole world will have to man the fiscal lifeboats.

Meanwhile, because of the size of the Japanese economy and its clout in Asia, Washington shouts "do something" to Japan, as if it were some magical formula.

The U.S., in a major public relations breakdown, comes across selfishly as wanting Japan and Asia to prop up American prosperity.

As several experts have pointed out already, among them the articulate David Friedman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), many Asians suspect that unregulated global capital foisted on their vulnerable economies caused the Asian financial crisis.

Washington keeps harping on "free markets" and criticizing government controls. Good theory. But even the IMF tells Indonesia and Thailand to impose certain controls to get out of the current mess. Singapore did so on its own.

Asians are going to remember the next time around, that Washington did a lot of finger-pointing at Japan and others but gave little real encouragement because the U.S., in fact, is benefiting from economic weakness all around the Pacific Rim.

By playing up to China, the U.S. is coddling the world's largest cheap labor market while the rest of the region struggles to make a buck.

Asians know U.S. high-sounding economic policy boils down to "buy low, sell high." That adage, learned by bright MBAs out from Harvard and Berkeley, has been known and accepted in Asian marketplaces for a long time.

But you've got to have some respect for the other guy.

Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's prime minister, takes the argument too far with his blanket charge that Western governments and commercial interest s are using the IMF and the Asian crises to impose their will on the region in a sort of neo-colonialism.

This kind of conspiracy thinking sees "American internet colonialism," domination by the West of the international news flow and globalization generally -- to name just three modern whippingboys -- as part and parcel of a giant Western plan to victimize smaller nations.

Some leaders use these arguments to fan nationalism that feeds the political status quo by blaming every misfortune on outsiders.

Asia is going through a great wrenching, perhaps cyclical, adjustment that requires a lot of patience and statesmanship for its solution.

Having made today's point, let me say that some Japan-bashing for certain behavior is appropriate.

Item: Balvino Galvez (Dominican Republic), playing for the Yomiuri Giants baseball team, was mad July 31 at what he thought was a missed call by umpire Atsusi Kitsutaka, allowing a batter to walk instead of strike out. Galvez gave up a homer to the next batter and was pulled from the game. He was furious. As a parting shot, Galvez turned and threw the ball at the umpire's head, but missed. Galvez was suspended for the rest of the season and there were apologies all around.

Central League President Sumiko Takahara said "This outrage, which bordered on madness, rejects every facet of sportsmanship and calls for severe penalties."

She added "For a pitcher, the ball is a sacred object and as a professional, this kind of behavior cannot be allowed."

But earlier in the season a young American umpire was invited out to Japan to call some of the league games. You know, goodwill exchange.

A leading batter for a Japanese team didn't like a called third strike and physically bumped the American umpire in the chest.

Upshot: For his "inability" to recognize the Japanese strike zone, the American umpire was sent home. The Japanese team star player was neither reprimanded nor suspended. No apologies.

Boo!