Distinguished American and Japanese financial, media and foreign policy experts, including former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce Jeffrey Garten and former Ambassador to the U.S. Yoshio Okawara, met in Tokyo's Akasaka district earlier this week for a symposium on bilateral relations, but instead spent much of the time discussing China.
The symposium, titled "The Changing Context of U.S.-Japan Relations," was held in commemoration of the New York-based Japan Society's 90th and the Tokyo-based America-Japan Society's 80th anniversary. However, instead of focusing on U.S-Japanese trade or security agreements, the participants frequently returned to the subject of the growth of China.
"The U.S. now has a preoccupation with China," Garten said, adding that this was especially true as American foreign policy was being driven more and more by corporate expansion rather than government strategies. John Wadsworth, chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and India, Ltd., said, "I see the same kind of excitement and dynamism now in Shanghai and Beijing as I did in the early growth of Silicon Valley." Wadsworth added that he thought it might be "too late" for Japanese financial institutions and for the Tokyo financial market to become competitive internationally.