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Explores various issues concerning the free-trade negotiation between Japan and the U.S. in the 1980s. Factors that contribute to trade deficit of the U.S.; Private sectors wherein U.S. products are thought to be competitive; Details of Japanese-managed capitalism; Effect of the U.S. government's negotiating strategy on trade barriers set by Japan; Results of a summit meeting between President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.

Focuses on the financial implications of the 1991 Gulf War. Amount of money spent by Japanese medical teams deployed in the Gulf; Amount spent by Japan in providing military supplies in the Gulf; Fund raised by the U.S. for the Gulf War after the approval of the Congress; Financial aid provided by Germany; Pledge of Gulf states to provide oil and cash to the U.S. and other countries; Information on the relief and assistance program of the U.S. Treasury Department; Total economic aid provided by the allied nations.

Argues against the prevailing view that strong government and efficient private business are adversaries in the U.S. View of the author that big government and excess regulation damage entrepreneurship; Reference to the examples of the health care, banking and worker training sector wherein it has been proved that government is harming American free enterprises; View of writer Daniel K. Tarullo in a paper published in the Spring, 1991, issue of the periodical "The American Prospect" that stronger government is better able to broker consensual solutions to difficult social problems; Comparison of the governmental system of the U.S. with that of Europe and Japan.

The article focuses on the open capital markets of Japan. Liberalizing Japanese capital markets has been a top priority of the Reagan Administration under the continuing trade negotiations between the United States and Japan. Moving Japan toward a more market-driven financial system would not only be more consistent with American-style capitalism but would create a more level field for foreign financial players to compete.

The article reports on the reasons why allies of the United States are not buying Treasury Secretary James A. Baker's visionary drive for economic policy coordination with Japan and West Germany. The Group of Seven failed to agree on a common fiscal and monetary strategy. Secretary Baker is pushing for incompatible short-run and long-run goals.

The article comments on the meeting of the leaders of industrial nations in Tokyo, Japan. The summit meetings since the first meeting in Rambouillet, France shared a diplomatic goal, the avoidance of calamity. The summits have become a reassurance that the leaders in the Western world share the same vision.