The $79-billion question is why does the United States continue to tolerate the lopsided economic relationship with Japan that led to a such a massive trade imbalance in 1999? Mike Millard, a veteran Asahi journalist, explains how the Japanese government has used the military bases it hosts in Okinawa as an effective diplomatic weapon, preventing U.S. initiatives aimed at creating a more mutually beneficial economic relationship.
In delving into how the Japanese private sector manipulates Washington politics to secure its interests in ways that are harmful to the U.S., Millard also peels back layers of self-delusion that have prevented what he believes is an overdue reality check.
A smoldering anger and disappointment animate this highly personal account of what ails Japan. Millard offers 35 brief chapters that help explain his growing alienation from Japan and his decision to leave in order to spare his young child the burdens of growing up in a country that renders individualism a self-indulgent vice. The title suggests that the book zeroes in on why the trans-Pacific relationship is dysfunctional, and it delivers on this promise, but its most poignant moments revolve around the author's progressive estrangement from a country he first encountered as a young navy technician stationed in Okinawa three decades ago.