Testing the United States Japan security alliance

''If, as some Japanese critics have charged, this is not really an alliance at all but rather a patron-client relationship, then it is a peculiar relationship, one in which the patron commits to the defense of the client and the client commits to little in return. To paper over this asymmetry, the benefits of the alliance have been undersold to the Japanese public and oversold to the American public.'' But this is about to change.