The FS-X question.

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THE UNITED STATES spends about 6 per cent of its GNP, roughly $1,200 per capita, on defense. The comparable figures for Japan are 1.5 per cent and $200. A decade ago this imbalance might have persuaded Washington to allow, if not encourage, Tokyo to go it alone in developing and producing its nextgeneration attack aircraft, and indeed, that is exactly what the Japanese had originally intended to do. But last June, following intense criticism of its massive trade deficit with the United States, Japan was pressured into giving part of the FS-X project to the export-hungry U.S. aircraft industry. As the deal now stands, the $1.2-billion development program for the FS-X will be shared, 60 per cent going to Mitsubishi, 40 per cent to General Dynamics.

This arrangement is far from perfect. The U.S. trade deficit would decline more, and Japan could buy more planes at lower cost, if the present version of the F-16, widely acknowledged to be the best fighter aircraft in the world, were purchased directly from General Dynamics. But Japan has not purchased fighters off the shelf since 1955, and to expect it to do so now would be to pretend that its economic transformation over the past three decades hadn't occurred.

Opponents of the FS-X deal fear that it will give Tokyo access to U.S. expertise, in the fields of both technology and production, that could eventually be applied to the development of a Japanese aerospace industry that would compete with U.S. firms. This fear seems groundless. The Japanese, after all, were coerced into adopting the F-16's basic design instead of developing one of their own, and, in any event, the F-16 represents a 1970s technology that is not relevant in developing the next generation of civilian jet transports. The flow of usable technology may well be in the other direction: the version of the agreement approved by the President assures that General Dynamics and other U.S. firms will have access to any new technology developed by the Japanese in the course of the project, while restricting Japan from applying our computer technology to other aircraft.

Japan should be pressured to expand its defense efforts to levels commensurate with its economic status, but this need not require a military budget proportionate to that of the United States. Instead, we ought to encourage Japan to increase its economic and military aid to the nations of the Pacific basin, a move that would bolster both Western security and the trade balances of the United States and Japan.