Bill Clinton: “I did detect a change. But I have to tell you, I have tried very hard to move this dialog into a constructive frame of…”

“I did detect a change. But I have to tell you, I have tried very hard to move this dialog into a constructive frame of mind. When I spoke at Waseda University, I acknowledged that one of the reasons that there was such a big trade deficit with Japan in the 1980's was that we had such a huge Government deficit, we needed a lot of Japanese money to pay for our debt, to keep our interest rates down. In other words, I tried to go beyond the rhetoric and finger- pointing of both sides. I also pointed out, however, that we have now had 10 years of high manufacturing productivity growth, that we really are the high quality, low cost producer of many goods and services, and that we have to recognize we have to have a new relationship. I think we should focus on things that are positive for both of us and be very, very firm about the need to change. But I don't sense a lot of ridicule here. And as a matter of fact, what I was hoping was that the Japanese would not be too concerned about all the changes going on in this country. A lot of the political changes are without precedent in the postwar era, post-World-War-II era. But they are the inevitable part of growing in a democracy and changing. And I sense a real sense of anticipation and openness here that's perhaps a little greater than it has been in past years and pretty uniformly throughout the people that I met and talked with. I must say a special word of appreciation to our host, Prime Minister Miyazawa, who, even though his party is facing elections, as you know, in just a few days, displayed a great vigor and willingness to discuss a lot of these issues and to try to bring them to closure, and clearly had to sign off on the market access agreement and had to make some changes to do so in his government's position. Thank you very much.”