Kusumoto would like his fellow nativenJapanese to remember how thingsnwere when the shoe was on the othernfoot. He’d like the Japanese to opennthe doors to American rice and othernagricultural imports. But he also wantsnthe U.S. to stop ranting about penetratingnthe Japanese domestic market.nThat penetration has been accomplished,nhe notes. But it is also verynimportant to recognize that the Japanesenmarket is not the be-all and endallnsome Americans think it is. If Americansnlearn only one thing fromnMinolta’s success, it should be thenneed for the U.S. to beat Japan, not innJapan, but in newly emerging globalnmarkets.nIf it is diflBcult for American businessmennto operate in Japan, asnKusumoto notes, still he finds themnsignificantly absent in the world’s establishednfree-trade zones. Americannimporters overwhelm Hong Kong, butnnot American exporters. “Even innPanama, with its close ties to the UnitednStates, the neon signs alone offernconvincing evidence that the Japanesentraders are much more active than thenAmericans.” American business is stillnmuch too slow to adapt to globalnmarketing, says Kusumoto. And henpoints out that when the weakeningndollar curtailed Japanese auto exportsnby raising the price of Japanese carsnsold here, American manufacturersnraised prices to make short-term profits,nrather than hold the line on prices tonrecapture lost domestic market share.nAccording to Kusumoto the U.S.nwill have a long wait before the Japanesencatch up with our cultural sag.nRecently, William Emmott of ThenEconomist, in The Sun Also Sets, predictedna decline in Japanese savingsnrates and a future dethroning of thenglobal liquidity king. That may notnhappen. Already rumblings that suggestna repeat of 1930’s Japan have beennheard. The best way out for the U.S.nmay well be to listen to Kusumoto’snmessage and recover the commitmentnof the Yankee traders who opened upnthe Orient in the first place.nThomas L. Ashton is president ofnDryads Green Associates,na financial consulting firm.nHis most recent booknis Business and the Politics ofnEconomic Responsibility.nRoman Reflectionsnof Americanby E. Christian KopffnAmerica’s Romenhy William L. VancenNew Haven: Yale University Press;nVol. I: Classical Rome,n440 pp.; Vol. U: Catholic andnContemporary Rome,n544 pp.; $30.00 eachnWilliam L. Vance, of Boston University,nhad the brilliant idea ofndescribing the relationship of citizens ofna new nation to the civilization of a verynold city. In the first volume, Vancenconcentrates on Americans’ reactions innliterature and art to five important classicalnsites: the Roman Forum, the Colosseum,nthe Campagna, the Pantheon,nand the art galleries of the CapitolinenHill. In the second volume, he reportsnAmericans’ very different reactions tonBaroque art and the papacy. He alsongoes to the American Academy innRome and describes the works thatnemerged in this century from that fortressnof Americanism on the JaniculumnHill. His style is conversational andnThe Girls Clubs of America hasnchanged its name to Girls Inc., and itsnmotto has changed from “It doesn’tnmatter where a girl comes from as longnas she knows where she is going” to thenmore sobering “Growing up is seriousnbusiness.” Kevin Bellows, who works fornthe organization’s national office in NewnYork, said that the the new name wouldnunderscore the group’s mission byn”moving away from the word ‘club,’nwhich suggests exclusivity and recreation.”nMoreover, the old motto wasndeemed insufficient in light of the seriousnpressures facing young people today,nand in keeping with the new theme GirlsnInc. will now concentrate on how tonavoid such things as unwelcome preg­nLIBERAL ARTSnWHAT’S IN A NAME?nnnlively. Almost every page expressesnsome vigorous insight or exasperatednremark made by the author or hisnsubjects.nThis is a book to dip into for itsnwide-ranging interests and sympatheticninsights into America and Americans.nThe structure, however, is flawed fornreasons the author reveals when discussingnFrancis Marion Crawford’s oncenpopular Ave Roma Immortalis (1898),nwhich viewed Rome area by area. “Bynthis method of chronology and itsnimplied cause-and-effect developmentsnare necessarily sacrificed to topographicalnaccidents and associations. Consequently,nrandom episodes of the pastnseem to exist simultaneously on a givennspot.” Vance’s book suffers from thensame fault. We begin with WilliamnDean Howells’ negative reaction inn1864 and 1908 to a century of adulationnof classical Rome. The next pagendiscusses a John Vanderlyn watercolornof 1806. The chapter on the RomannCampagna, full of clever comments onnindividual paintings and passages ofnliterature, moves from Thomas Cole’snpaintings of the 1830’s and later, tonWashington Allston’s pictures of thenbeginning of the century, and thennleaps to’Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Mar-nnancy, drug addiction, and welfare.nNot all chapters of the Girls Glubsnagree with the changes, and they havenuntil 1992 to decide whether to acceptnthem; chapters choosing to retain the oldnname and slogan would become nonvotingnaffiliates of the organization. Controversynover organizational names firstnarose two years ago when the GirlsnClubs filed a lawsuit against the BoysnClubs of America Inc., which had decidednto change its name to Boys and GirlsnGlubs of America Inc. to reflect itsngrowing coed membership. The GirlsnClubs received $760,000 in an out-ofcourtnsettlement and agreed to withdrawnits objections.nAUGUST 1990/43n