Moving beyond decades of hostility, Chinese and Japanese leaders are starting a new trend of goodwill between the two countries. This new attitude includes a move towards cooperating on issues such as climate change and security in Korean peninsula, writes Sheila Smith.

Japan is sending warning signals about the state of the U.S.-Japan alliance, but it is questionable whether the Americans get the message, argues Weston Konishi.

Weston S. Konishi questions whether the Okinawa rape crisis will result in U.S. troop withdrawals from Japan.

The White House and Congress are currently working on an economic stimulus package to boost the U.S. economy. In this Bloomberg article, Amity Shlaes looks at short-term economic measures in a historical context and argues that tinkering with the economy may not be the best idea.

Ralph A. Cossa discusses South Korea's cancellation of the General Security of Military Information Agreement and its plan to pursue a military Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement with Japan.

President George W. Bush should challenge his Japanese counterpart to launch a joint initiative to create a U.S.-Japan “open marketplace”--free of tariffs, with minimal regulatory impediments, and an increasing freedom to do business--by the year 2010, argues Bruce Stokes in A New Beginning: Recasting the U.S.-Japan Economic Relationship.

During the twentieth century, as the United States grew into a world power, Americans confronted two major powers in Asia: China and Japan. Of course, there were and are other crucial factors in Asia, from the expansionist former Soviet Union to the unpredictable North Korea. But in this century, Americans struggled most of all to get their China and Japan policies right. There is no reason to believe that Chinese and Japanese issues will be less central to U.S. policy in the twenty-first century.