As U.S. President George W. Bush makes the rounds in Europe, taking flak and talking trash, it seems like a good opportunity to address what his father would refer to as the "cultural hegemony thing." South Korea and France deal with it by subsidizing their movie industries. China screens everything entering the country that doesn't look like Mickey Mouse. Scandinavia invents death metal.

Because of its special relationship with all things American, Japan has never limited anything cultural from the U.S., except one: athletes. Of course, American athletes can be found all over Japan, but until a few years ago, each of the 12 professional baseball teams was limited to two foreign players. The reason was simple: If a team could buy as many foreign players as it wanted to, then the teams would be overrun with Westerners.

What was problematic about this issue was not the reality but the implication. Cross-Pacific trade in baseball players went only one way, and, for the most part, the Japanese themselves believed that the players who came here were those who weren't good enough to play in the major leagues in the U.S. What did that say about Japanese players?