MITI, about half of Japan's small companies think of themselves as subcontractors to bigger ones, a relationship which must expose them to similar pressures.
The head of the powerful Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) is one of a new generation of Japanese politicians less influenced by Japan's World War II defeat and less indebted to the U.S. in the post-war years.
By contrast, the U.S. Commerce Department (roughly MITI's counterpart) was unable to play a corresponding role despite the spirit of then-pending legislation (the Bingaman amendment to the FY1989 DOD Authorization Act) requiring Defense to consult with Commerce in the negotiation of bilateral memorandums of understanding.