[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
[July 6, 1993]
[Pages 1015-1018]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's News Conference With Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa of 
Japan in Tokyo
July 6, 1993

    Prime Minister Miyazawa. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. Now I 
would like to lead off with a brief explanation. I would like to, first 
of all, extend my warmest welcome to President Clinton and his 
entourage. And it also is, I believe, most meaningful that President 
Clinton has chosen Asia as the first overseas visit this time. Of 
course, his visit is for the summit meeting as well, but he will meet 
with President Soeharto of Indonesia as well. And I had mentioned, 
therefore, that I very highly rate the fact that he has visited Asia 
this time and made the Japan-U.S. leaders meeting as well.
    Our relations, the Japan-U.S. relations are built on three pillars: 
security, global cooperation, and our bilateral economy. In April we 
said in Washington that we should be establishing a framework for our 
economy, and both of us at the working level had been working on this, 
but time had lapsed. So I sent a personal letter to President Clinton, 
and today I also received a very kind response to that personal letter. 
And we wanted on a working level to expedite their work on this matter 
as quickly as possible. And at the working level, both sides are 
working. Both of us are determined that a proper framework must be put 
in place.
    And in the summit meetings starting tomorrow, we've agreed that we 
shall cooperate with each other in bringing the summit meeting to a 
success.
    Mr. President, please.
    The President. Thank you very much. First of all, it's very good to 
see Prime Minister Miyazawa again. We had a fine meeting in Washington 
in April at the White House, and

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I was honored to have the opportunity to come here and meet with the 
Prime Minister before the beginning of the G-7 summit.
    It bears repeating again that the United States has no more 
important bilateral relationship than our relationship with Japan. We 
are strategic allies and our futures are bound up together. We have one 
of the world's most important trading partnerships. We have an array of 
regional and global alliances. And our historic relationship, as it 
undergoes change, must also maintain some continuity. I have invested a 
lot in both the change and the continuity because I think they are 
terribly important. And I was glad to have the opportunity to discuss a 
wide range of issues with the Prime Minister today.
    We discussed the need for a successful conclusion to the Uruguay 
round and our hope that we can agree, among the G-7 leaders, on market 
access, on a range of manufacturing products. We discussed the need to 
coordinate economic strategies of the world's wealthiest economies in 
the hope of restoring some growth and job opportunities to our own 
people and to the global economy.
    We discussed the issue which the Prime Minister mentioned on the 
framework of our own relationships, and I'll have a little more to say 
about that. But before I do, I want to say something about our security 
relationship which too often is overlooked.
    I emphasized to the Prime Minister that the United States intends to 
maintain our forward military presence, our presence in Japan, our 
presence in Korea, and our security agreements in this area. We intend 
to maintain a full engagement in this region. We discussed some of the 
difficulties that we face here, but we feel confident, looking toward 
the future, that our security partnership, which has kept us free of war 
and which has maintained a strict nonproliferation approach in this 
region, can continue, and we hope that it will.
    I also expressed my support for the extraordinary work Japan has 
done in supporting the process of reconciliation in Cambodia, in 
supporting United Nations efforts in Somalia and elsewhere. And I also 
want to say how much I appreciate the support that Japan has given to 
the efforts the United States has made with the G-7 to support democracy 
and market reforms in Russia. I believe that we will see a very positive 
outcome to those common efforts here at the G-7 meeting.
    The primary focus of our relationship was strengthening the economic 
relationships between our two nations. We are moving away, I hope, from 
continued tension toward greater shared benefits. The changes I seek in 
our relationship are not changes that I hope will benefit the United 
States at the expense of Japan but changes that I believe will benefit 
the people of both nations. We discussed this back in April. We 
discussed it again today.
    As the Prime Minister said, we reaffirmed our belief in the 
importance of creating a framework and establishing basic principles for 
our trading relationships. I remain convinced that we can conclude an 
important agreement on this issue. The negotiations have not been free 
of difficulty, but frankly, some significant progress has been made. And 
we agreed in our private meeting that our respective sides would 
continue to work in good faith and with real intensity during the next 
few days to see what we can do.
    The best way we can strengthen our historic friendship, as we must, 
is to make our trade and investment genuinely in the best interests of 
the peoples of both countries. I hope we will have more trade, not less, 
more openness, more growth, and more jobs in both Japan and the United 
States. And I believe we can achieve that with the proper framework.
    Finally, let me say that it's a great pleasure for Mrs. Clinton and 
I both to be back here in Japan. I came here several times when I was a 
Governor. I suppose, Mr. Prime Minister, I won't have quite the freedom 
of movement that I once enjoyed as a more private citizen, but on the 
other hand, I'm being treated to an enormous amount of Japanese 
hospitality, for which the United States is very grateful, and I look 
forward to the next few days.
    Prime Minister Miyazawa. Thank you very much. Now questions, please.

Framework Agreement

    Q. I would like to ask this question of both leaders. I understand 
from your remarks just now that you have not reached an agreement on the 
framework which is a matter of focus. I wonder, on these matters of 
great contention between Japan and the United States like the setting of 
targets with reduction of surplus, or on the Japanese side, there is a 
compromise idea for specific sectors, and I wonder if there has been any 
move closer to each other. If so,

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how far have you been able to move to each other?
    Prime Minister Miyazawa. Well, if you asked, we not reached any 
agreement, that is wrong. Over the past several days, I myself, and 
President Clinton have exchanged letters and through that process, the 
working level of both sides, setting the target of the summit, decided 
to finalize our work. And that exercise was conducted very intensively, 
and that effort is continuing.
    The President. Let me say that I agree with what the Prime Minister 
said. Late last week, after the sides had concluded the last round of 
negotiations without an agreement, the Prime Minister took the 
initiative and sent me a very thoughtful letter which reached out across 
the gap between our two positions. I then responded to that letter, and 
we concluded that both sides should go back to the table. That is where 
they are.
    Differences remain, but enough progress has been made that we 
believe they should continue to work during this critical period, and 
that is what they will do. And we have hopes. We don't want to raise 
false hopes, but we have hopes.
    Q. Mr. President, in light of the possible pending changes in the 
Japanese Government, how crucial is it that this framework is reached at 
this summit? And how likely do you think that would be? And if I could 
also ask the Prime Minister if he could help Americans understand what 
the difficulty is that the Japanese have with the idea of numerical 
targets.
    The President. Well, let me say, if we can get an agreement, the 
sooner we get it the better. I have been very impressed over the last 
several days with the terrific amount of energy and engagement that 
Prime Minister Miyazawa has personally brought to these negotiations and 
to the openness with which we have discussed these issues and the clear 
willingness of the Japanese Government and the Prime Minister himself to 
reach an agreement if we can in good conscience.
    There are still issues which divide us. Even if we make an 
agreement, there will be some issues which divide us. But our purpose is 
to make progress in dealing with the enormous trade imbalances and also 
with dealing with the need for our two countries to integrate our 
economic relationship so that both sides can benefit more. And I believe 
that it is possible. Conventional wisdom would have it that it would not 
be possible at such a political moment, but the Prime Minister has 
defied conventional wisdom. That does not mean that we will get an 
agreement. We don't know that yet. But at least we are trying, and 
that's I think a great credit to him.
    Prime Minister Miyazawa. Well, both of our countries have a market 
economy. And even if the government wants to do this or that, that 
cannot be translated into reality in a market economy. That is what 
market economy is about.
    Now, it is true that the Japanese current account surplus is too 
large, and we would like to somehow reduce this--work hard at reducing 
it. There is no doubt about it. But when it comes to suggesting that 
this surplus should be down to a certain percentage of GDP, you can't 
control GDP itself. And also since the world trade is free trade, you 
cannot determine exports and imports. We cannot control either the 
denominator or the numerator. Therefore, we cannot do that. That's a 
very simple reason.
    Any question from the Japanese side?

Japanese Elections

    Q. I would like to ask this question of President Clinton, a 
question on Japanese politics. In your press conference in Washington, 
DC, I think you expressed some hope and expectations for Japanese 
politics. Does that contain your expectations for a change in 
government? I wonder what sort of expectations do you have of Japanese 
politics?
    The President. First let me say I wish I had been able to answer the 
previous question a little bit. We have a slight difference of view on 
that. But my views on the trade issue I think are well-known to the lady 
in orange. So there's no point in bringing them up again.
    I'm glad you asked the question about Japanese politics. The United 
States takes no position, and I take no personal position on how the 
people of Japan should vote or will vote. That is a matter for them to 
decide. What I said and what I believe is that no matter how the vote 
comes out in terms of the distribution of party preferences for seats in 
the Diet, this is a period of change and ferment in Japan. It is a 
period of change and ferment in the United States. It could hardly be 
otherwise. There is a global crisis of slow growth in the wealthiest 
countries. There is a global crisis of job growth in the wealthiest 
countries. Many

[[Page 1018]]

wealthy countries, even when they have economic growth, are not now 
creating new jobs.
    There is a global feeling among all the democracies of the world 
that there ought to be more political reform. There is a thirst for 
political reform in my country, in Japan, in South Korea, in virtually 
every major democracy in the world. So you see these trends developing 
around the world.
    The point I wanted to make is that, no matter whether the LDP wins 
the election or there is some different or modified result--however it 
comes out, this is already a period of change in Japan, and I would hope 
that that would be viewed with hope and not with fear by the Japanese 
people. That is a part of the process of democracy, and we can make it a 
good thing in your country as we are attempting to make it a good thing 
in ours.

North Korea

    Q. Mr. President, last week in an interview with columnists in 
Washington, you expressed your worst nightmare in Asian security 
questions would be a North Korea that would have the bomb and be willing 
to use it. And your second worst nightmare was a Pacific arms race that 
could lead to--you used the example of development of a nuclear 
capability by Japan. Could you explain how you feel that might be 
brought about? And, Prime Minister Miyazawa, would you explain whether 
you believe that's ever possible under any circumstances, please?
    The President. Well, the two were related. I don't think it would 
ever happen in the absence of the development of nuclear capacity by 
North Korea and some retrenchment by the United States.
    I want to say again, the United States has no intention at this 
moment or in the future of weakening its security ties in the Pacific, 
not to Japan, not to South Korea. We intend to stay engaged, and the 
security commitments we have given with regard to nuclear and defense 
issues to Japan are as strong today as they have ever been. And they 
will so remain.
    I very much want North Korea to stay in the NPT and to fully comply 
with all the requirements of doing so. I think it is in the interest of 
North Korea to do so. I just simply was recognizing the fact that if 
North Korea did not do that, that would create a lot of difficulty and 
concern here in Japan. Whatever North Korea does, the United States will 
honor its commitments to our allies and friends in this region on the 
nuclear issue and on security issues generally.
    Prime Minister Miyazawa. For Japan, if the people's Democratic 
Republic of Korea acquire nuclear weapons and also acquires launch 
capability, that in itself would be a direct threat. It will be a direct 
threat for Japan. I'm sure you will understand that. We have, obviously, 
no intention of producing nuclear weapons, and therefore, we will--and 
definitely we'd be very concerned if we are to be exposed to that sort 
of threat.
    Thank you very much for the press conference.

Note: The President's 19th news conference began at 6:04 p.m. at the 
Iikura House.