Rocking Bridges, Distant Shores--The Generational Disconnect between Kiichi Miyazawa and Bill Clinton (1991-1998)

Rocking Bridges, Distant Shores--The Generational Disconnect between Kiichi Miyazawa and Bill Clinton (1991-1998)

Kiichi Miyazawa served as Japan's 78th Prime Minister from November 1991 to August 1993. He was an intelligent and prudent leader who embodied the prewar bureaucratic system, and he was steeped in the flavor of the Showa period.
On the other hand, Bill Clinton, who took office in January 1993 as the 42nd President of the United States, was the poster child for the postwar generation, having grown up on rock music and television culture without having experienced the Vietnam War firsthand. Their tenures overlapped by only about six months, and during that time, a subtle generation gap and disconnect in values was highlighted, as if symbolizing a turning point of the times.

At the time, the Miyazawa administration was rocked by the Sagawa Express scandal and other political fund scandals in Japan, and was in the final stages of its administration. The Clinton administration, on the other hand, adopted a new foreign policy philosophy that "the economy is security" in the post-Cold War international order, and its policy toward Japan shifted dramatically from a traditional emphasis on security to an emphasis on the economy. The Clinton administration's stance, which strongly pressed for the reduction of the trade deficit and the opening of markets, was fundamentally different from the Miyazawa-style bureaucratic balancing act that had sustained Japan in the postwar era.

In April 1993, at the Miyazawa-Clinton talks in Washington, D.C., it was agreed that a new "U.S.-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership" would be launched. This framework was unprecedented in its depth, going beyond the mere resolution of trade friction to demand that the U.S. side seek structural reform of the Japanese economy--from distribution, to finance, to public works. However, Clinton's desire for speed and Miyazawa's emphasis on careful proceduralism did not mesh, and Miyazawa's cabinet was forced to resign shortly after the meeting. The door to a new Japan-U.S. relationship was left to the administration of Morihiro Hosokawa.

Meanwhile, Clinton's own youthful wildness would cast a shadow over the future.

First, Clinton was haunted by the shadow of the "Whitewater Affair" dating back to her days as governor of Arkansas. This was an alleged financial fraud involving real estate investment projects in which the Clintons were involved, which later led to a lengthy investigation by independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr. Although no direct misconduct was proven, moral responsibility continued to be questioned.

Then, in 1998, a more serious problem erupted. Over an inappropriate relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, Clinton publicly denied that there was any relationship, but evidence raised suspicions of perjury and obstruction of justice. He was impeached by the House of Representatives, becoming only the second president in U.S. history to be impeached.
However, he was not convicted by the Senate and remained president. Public opinion, supported by a strong economy, was inclined to tolerate him, but he left a major crack in the nation's moral fabric.

Kiichi Miyazawa and Bill Clinton - the moment of intersection between the two leaders was brief. But their encounter clearly reflected the generational rupture and shift in values in the new post-Cold War world order. The two leaders were at once cautious and responsive, disciplined and freewheeling, and the old world and the new. On the shaky bridge, the two shores reached out to each other, but in the end they did not intersect, but were swept away by the current of the times.