During this past Christmas season, it became something of a joke in the United States when Americans were asked by their government to go shopping as a means of pursuing the War on Terrorism at home. The idea was that the Forces of Evil wanted nothing less than the destruction of Our Way of Life, so the best way to foil them was for everyone to carry on as they always had. Better yet, spend a little more and get this darned ailing economy back on its feet. That'll teach 'em.

The same kind of thinking is implicit in the current advertising campaign, launched by the Travel Industry Association of America to coincide with President George W. Bush's visit last week, to promote travel to and within the United States. Now, it's Japanese people who are being asked to do their part in the War on Terrorism, by essentially getting over their fear of flying after Sept. 11 and going to the U.S. and spending all that money they're so famous for spending when they're abroad.

This idea is a corollary of another joke, the one about Japan being the country that sits home during times of international crises writing checks. The difference is that here is a way for the average Japanese person to make a difference on an individual level. The loss of tourist revenue from Japan has apparently caused a great deal of pain in places like Hawaii and New York. Hawaii seems quite desperate, in fact, and is trying everything, from recruiting Akebono for high-level Japan trade missions to staging a concert by the Japanese boy band Arashi in Oahu in the hope that fans will get on a plane and fly five hours to see them perform.