Japan-U.S. relations now seem to be at a major turning point. This is not because we are entering a new millennium, but rather because various conditions that brought about past turning points in the history of bilateral relations now seem to be maturing and ripening once again.
It is interesting to note that the development of history seems to contain in itself possibilities for changes far more drastic and bolder than our common sense can foresee.
And the history of Japan-U.S. relations may be one of the best example of such possibilities. Nobody imagined that the two countries, which had had no contact at all until Commodore Matthew C. Perry's arrival at Uraga with his Black Ships in 1853, would have developed their exchanges and conflicts of such a scale in so many diversified ways in the years that followed. And Japan-U.S. relations will continue to develop and change. We should not underestimate such possibilities.