Abstract
This paper discusses the so-called “Zensho shimasu” remark by Prime Minister Eisaku
Sato, translated as “I will do my best,” to President Richard Nixon in the Japan-U.S.
summit talks in 1969. There has been a legend that Sato used the obscure Japanese words
in a reply to Nixon, who was pressing Japan to voluntarily limit its textile exports to the
U.S. Nixon reportedly accepted the remark erroneously conveyed in English by an
interpreter as a promise that Japan would implement the measures to ease discontent in
the U.S. textile industry. I analyze the conversation between Sato and Nixon by using
declassified official documents written in Japanese and English. Results reveal Sato did
not say “Zensho shimasu” and that his other remarks may have affected Nixon’s
impression of the Japan’s promise.
