Over the past year or so, I have reflected frequently about two words used in the appellation for this volume: trade and friction. I have heard them often, particularly during my visits to Japan, where they seem to have become the accepted shorthand way of summarizing the current, somewhat strained state of bilateral trade relations between Japan and the United States.

They are, I think, good words, particularly friction. After all, besides being a synonym for a conflict or a clashing, it conveys the impression of a rubbing together of two bodies that produces heat. And, certainly, we know that the current “rubbing” between the United States and Japan is having the effect of producing some heat, especially in the halls of Congress, where pressures for protectionism appear so strong.

But before we lament too much the heat that trading tensions are producing, it is important to remember that with friction often light emerges. Indeed, our primordial ancestors took it for granted that it was virtually impossible to get one without the other.

Today, of course, the wonders of modern science and technology are such that in the physical world we can now produce “cold light.” In the world of social sciences and politics (dare I say political economics?), however, we are really still in the Dark Ages. Hence, we have to recognize that when facing the kinds of subjects dealt with in this volume, the cost of getting some light on the issues may be the generation of some heat. The trick is to dissipate the latter while preserving the insights and images that the former permits.