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U.S.-Japan Relations (Overview) Fact sheet released by the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs U.S. Department of State, June 26, 2000

Our close and cooperative relationship with Japan is the cornerstone of U.S. policy in the Asia-Pacific region and the basis of a strong, productive partnership in addressing global issues. Despite different social and cultural traditions, Japan and the United States have much in common. Both have open, democratic societies, high literacy rates, freedom of expression, multiparty political systems, universal suffrage, and open elections. In addition, both are highly developed free-market industrial economies, and both favor an open and active international trading system. Both the United States and Japan are active at the United Nations and the U.S. supports Japan's goal of obtaining a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. The U.S.-Japan Security Alliance lies at the core of stability and prosperity in the Pacific region. The 1960 Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security provides the basis for a close relationship between the two civilian governments and their defense establishments. Today, there are approximately 100,000 U.S. military personnel deployed in the Pacific region, and over 40,000 are in Japan, including about 28,000 in Okinawa. Under the terms of the Security Treaty, these troops contribute to the defense of Japan and to the maintenance of international peace and security in the region.

The United States and Japan are the two largest economies in the world, comprising about one third of global output. The U.S.-Japan bilateral economic relationship is strong, mature, and increasingly interdependent, based on heavy flows of trade, investment and finance. Despite continuing trade frictions, the relationship is firmly rooted in the responsibility of the U.S. and Japan to promote global growth through open markets and a vital world trading system.

As a result of the two countries' combined economic and technological impact on the world, the U.S.-Japan relationship has become global in scope. The two governments have developed a strong partnership to address shared priorities worldwide. An example of that partnership is the U.S.-Japan Common Agenda, a set of global initiatives begun in 1993 in areas such as the environment, technology, development and health. Under the Common Agenda, the two governments cooperate on issues as diverse as environmental protection, children's vaccines, narcotics demand reduction, and the role of women in development.

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