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After busily directing his attention to
'our hide-and-seek game with the Soviet
Union for so long, President Reagan
finally took a little time out to look
West. Last week Yasuniro Nakasone,
the newly elected prime minister of Ja
pan, came .to Washington to discuss Amer
ica's relationship with the crowded archi
pelago. This was a prelude to Secretary
of State George Shultz's trip to China,
Japan and South Korea.
Japan is a fascinating country, with a
curious mixture of traditional culture and
modern methods that is more pronounced
than any we find here in the United States.
Yet we do share some similarities. Japan
and the United States have perhaps the
largest economies in the world and by
looking at our island ally we may dis
cover some clues as to why we are both
having such a heap of problems.
The reason for Nakasone's visit was
to discuss the economic and and defense
situations in which Japan and the United
States supposedly help each other out.
The key word is "supposedly" because
right now the United States is buying
$17.5 billion more goods from Japan
annually than Japan is buying from the
United States.
That spells discomfort in the give-and-take
world of capitalism, and American
businessmen are getting a little upset
that our highways are filling up with
Hondas when they don't get to share the
wealth. Douglas Fraser, the president of
the United Auto Workers, has voiced his
discontent over this trade imbalance with
Japan. "We have a discriminatory, unfair
and unequal trade relationship." he said.
That doesn't mean he wants to start
shipping Chevettes to Tokyo, but that
Japan should open its doors a little bit
to American products. That is easier
said than done, because Japan may be
approaching the end of the economic
tidal wave it has been riding since soon
after World War II.
In a recent article on Japan's economy
in Forbes magazine, Japanese economist
Keiji Miyamoto said, "Just when Japan
is being admired for its economic power,
major changes are taking place with the
industrial structure. Japan's future eco
nomic performance is in danger."
Where has this danger come from? An
answer to that requires a close look at
Japanese culture and the way economic
policy reflects that culture. Japan is a
highly disciplined, very energetic coun
try. Keeping such a small land mass vital
has required a great deal of structure. And
built into that structure is a constant
forward motion to produce, to succeed.
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I've been told more than once that
I'm too practical. I am especially practi
cal when it comes to dress. Maybe it's
because I am a tail-end "child of the
'60s" who grew into my teens as I grew
into my blue jeans. I have not outgrown
them.
My casual, and at times, sloppy dres
sing style is one that I find comfortable
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Monica
Osterbuhri
and terribly hard to shake. When I went
to college in the early '70s men would
sell their souls for worn olive green Army
fatigue jackets, whether or not they had
been in the service. Bell-bottomed jeans,
pea coats and wedgies were in. Bells
were probably invented by a designer to
make girls' ankles look huge so their hips
and thighs would look small.
Back then, students considered them
selves overdressed if the had new jeans
on. One might even have been asked if he
were running for an office, if he wearing
new jeans.
I am embarrassed to admit this, but I
have not worn a real dress to a college
class since 1975 when I appeared before
music juries up on a stage in a brown mini
skirt. When I wear nylon hose they get snag
ged on the first thing they come into con
tact with - usually my hands. They al
ways bag at the ankles and I end up tying
the nylon toes in knots and stuffing them
under my toes.
Oh, the blue jeans are still here. But
there are some modes of dress for school
that were very foreign to me when I came
to school at UNL. I must have been hiding
in a time warp for the last few years.
Some of the newest things in clothing
and accessories have amazed me this year,
as far as practicality in the classroom is
concerned. Wool tweed tailored suits,
pleated ruffles, bow ties, puffed taffeta
sleeves and flowing plaid skirts are gor
geous. I love the Victorian collars and
the pretty leather pumps that I see. At
first, I wondered if UNL was a branch of
Patricia Stevens College.
Today's vogue is the sharp, tailored
look. It is sharp, but expensive. It was a
real shock to me to find that these clothes
could be worn for school and not just for
the labor market.
When I dress up, I inevitably get pop
stains, ink, magic marker, ashes or gum
Take for example, a train that was
built between the cities of Tokyo and
Niigata. It required massive amounts of
construction, including digging the world's
largest mountain tunnel and was consider
ed by many to not be worth the final
cost of S60 million per mile. But it was
built anyway, a living symbol of an eco
nomy that moves faster than a speeding
bullet and is now finding that it has per
haps outpaced itself. As a percentage of
Gross National Product. Japan's deficit is
even larger than the United State', with
much of it going to pump funds into in
dustries like agriculture.
Japan is an exaggerated example of
what we are suffering from here in the
United States. They are a country that
has thrived on shipping billions of dol
lars worth of goods, 43 percent of them
capital goods, around the world just as
we have thrived on saturating American
markets. Now both have reached their
limits. Products sit in warehouses, com
plaints begin to arise, and here in the
United States unemployment lines be
gin to grow.
Could our shared malaise become the
source of more friction? In a recent inter
view, Nakasone said, "America was Ja
pan's mentor or teacher. But of late the
student has been showing signs of excel
ling the teacher and the teacher might be
getting a little jealous of the student's
achievements . . . The student in the
meantime is rapidly depicting his energy
and weakening his footing. The United
States has been a very good teacher to
Japan and the student does not want to
fight the teacher."
But the teacher is advising' the student
to beef up its defense and share the bur
den of fending off the Soviets. Reagan
asked Nakasone to increase Japan's de
fense budget. One doesn't have to think
hard to recall the dangers of increasing
defense spending in the midst of economic
difficulties, especially in a country where
economic vitality and national pride are
so closely tied.
It could be that both countries are
sharing the same trepidation, a trepi
dation about their own inability to deal
with problems that can all too easily be
funneled off into an exaggerated anxiety
about a third party. The teacher and the
teacher's pet are disgruntled, but rather
deal with that effectively they may start
grumbling even more about another mem
ber of the faculty who has developed a
reputation, deserved or not, for being the
school bully.
David Thompson
'Doon'S Bead m on, lead! mis7
Running the nation can't be as tough
as our oafs in office lead on. Leading us
on seems to be the leaders' job. Leading
us to belive their job is impossible, they
sidestep accountability and can go
their way.
Myself, I see a flaw in the system. 1
think politicians would save time and
have more fun if they just went ahead
and ran the country. Why, I've got a
h
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David
Wood
plan easy enough that a trained
chimpanzee, or even its sidekick movie
star, could understand it. (In fact,
Ron Reagan inspired the dim idea.)
Simply, the plan is this: To prod our
sluggish economy into brisk goose
step, what we need is good, home-style,
tried-and-true fascist domination and
worldwide war.
Sure it sounds old-fashioned and
conventional. But old, simple, easy
ways are often the best ways. Fear for
one's life has sparked high productivity
in the past. Why shouldn't it still?
Just a cold war and some token
violence would do it. I'm not advocat
ing nuclear holocaust, at least not in
this column. (I saw a documentary
about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the
mutations the A-bombs caused and how
Godzilla came from the ocean.)
My modest proposal is that we keep
a war-like frame of mind. "Bellicose" is
Dan Webster's word for the attitude.
It's easy as starting a forest fire. We
wouldn't even have to change our
foreign policy. All we need to do is
stop frittering away money with Polly
anna domestic spending and start
pumping our bottom-heavy tax dollars
into the military instead.
Education conflicts with the draft.
Also, the old, the weak and the power
less will have no place in the muscular
economy. (They're surplus population,
much like those cursed swarms of Third
World babies. That darn UNICEF will
be the first to go when the iron heel
comes down.)
It's simple as bang. The rest just falls
in place.
Inflation: It'll be a moot point when
we convert to a system of K-rations,
bread lines and business lunches. Of
course, soldiers and laborers will be paid
a sub-living wage, to keep them rough,
ready, and, mostly , busy . The only social
assistance I see as necessary is free
cable TV, since commercials will be
obsolete. (Yes, by the way, I was the
one who wrote Time magazine and
nominated cable TV as Man of the
Year.)
Unemployment: Everyone will be a
soldier, laborer, tycoon, politician or in
jail. (Overcrowded jails: The death
penalty has always been a favorite of
mine.)
High interest rates: Do away with the
corporate tax. It's hard to justify any
way. Deficit spending: Convert from cur
rency to plastic U.S. savings bonds,
butter, cheese, powdered milk and old
grain.
Foreign debt: "Here's somewhere to
practice our military.
Import competition: Here's some
where else.
Failing heavy industry: The answer is
obviously munitions manufacture.
Washington, own up to your slack
elected job. Don't lead us on, lead us.
It's simple as an index card. It's easy as
hup-two-three-four.
on my clothes. I thought 1 made a real
advancement this fall when I bought two
pairs of corduroys at Sears.
Things have really changed. I remember
how I used to get a laugh when I saw wo
men who were still wearing their pointy
glasses with rhinestones in the corners. I
would never be old-fashioned, I said. Now
my snobbishness has returned to haunt me.
I suppose people hold back laughter
when I show up with wedgies and my
polyester pants on. I am one of those odd
fashion crashers who wears a parka hood
over her head when going to class in 60
mph winds. I'm even outdated when I
wear leisure clothes. I went to the foot
ball games last semester wearing a cowboy
hat instead of deely-boobers. When I wore
a headband once, a girl asked me how I
cut my head.
It's really time that I changed my image.
Maybe if I practiced dressing for success
now, it would sink in by the end of the
semester. I'm going to begin tonight by
sleeping in my best flannel nightgown
instead of my huband's T-shirt and shrunk
en boxer shorts.
