英文訳お願いいたします。
Positive Influences
Although the initial reaction to the increased strength of the Japanese economy was negative,
there have since been many positive effects on the Japanese-American relationship.
Most important of all, it has for the first time allowed americans to identify with Japan,
and forced Americans to under-stand Japan as a real country. When America was dominant or in conflict,
it was easy to dismiss Japan with superficial stereotypes.
Before the introduction of high-quality consumer goods into the american market Japan had been a remote,
exotic, psychologi-cally inaccessible place most amercans. It was, now Americans found themselves forced to
compete directly with the Japanese and to understand them.
That, in a sense, has made the Japanese less exotic, more immediate, and, in some ways, more Western.
Americans perceived similarities as they were forced to get to know the Japanese better, especially in
the superficialities of urban life --clothing, food, environ-ment, daily commute.
The rapidly increasing number of Americans who traveled to Japan for business and pleasure noted
the similarities they found.
These were partly a result of the Americanization of Japan since the occupation and partly the similarities
that exist between any two industrially developed countries.
