ABSTRACT
The first term of the Clinton Administration was the culmination of a somewhat haphazard shift by the United States towards a results-oriented market access policy towards Japan. It marked the final phase in the ascendancy of the hardliners in the American trade policy community. From the president down, the Clinton Administration saw demands for quantitative results in the Japanese market as the distinguishing element of its trade policy. This exemplified how deeply a process of learning about the Japan problem had lodged in the American trade policy community by the early 1990s. With the White House setting the tone, executive branch agencies that traditionally had sought to temper a hardline approach – the Treasury, the CEA and the State Department – were key institutional actors in formulating and defending a results-oriented Japan policy. Successful implementation, however, would prove more elusive.
