ABSTRACT
Between 9 and 14 November 1983 Ronald Reagan’s first trip to Asia as president took him to Japan and South Korea. A very different kind of president from both Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter (his immediate predecessor) Reagan concentrated on establishing a personal rapport with Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro, leaving substantive issues to members of his cabinet. The two leaders had already met twice in the US, when Nakasone had visited Washington DC in January 1983 and when he attended the G-7 summit meeting at Williamsburg in May. One continuing American concern in November was how to handle the changing economic relationship between the world’s two largest economies. Another was to persuade Japan to expand still further its role in regional defence1: a theme which Nakasone probably found less uncongenial than some of his predecessors, but which remained controversial with the Japanese press and public. While the archival version is not yet available, the visit was generally regarded at the time as a success from the American point of view.
