WASHINGTON -- Saying ties between the United States and Japan "have never been stronger," President Bill Clinton feted Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at a starlit, and star-struck, White House dinner. The president raised his glass in a toast to the emperor and empress in an evening gala outside in the Rose Garden on Monday, which was shimmering with the twinkle of tiny decorative lights and the glitterati of American politics and culture. "Today the ties that bind our two nations have never been stronger," Clinton said. He said technology and the common search for democracy, prosperity and peace had brought together the United States and Japan. "Yet there is always more to learn. And as we gather here tonight in 1994, our relationship is still unfolding," Clinton said. Neither the president nor the emperor, who responded with a toast, mentioned their nations' bloody conflict during World War II, or the differences on trade that have frayed recent relations between the United States and Japan. Akihito said simply that during their U.S. visit, he and the empress would "think deeply about the course that our two countries have followed in the past. "I sincerely hope that this visit will, even in a small way, help our two peoples recognize anew the bonds forged by our forefathers between our two countries and consolidate these bonds further," Akihito said. There were 175 guests listening in the Rose Garden, among them Vice President Al Gore, House Republican leader Robert Michel, playwright Edward Albee, actress Jane Fonda, singer Barbra Streisand and her escort for the evening, ABC television anchorman Peter Jennings. Although Clinton has been in the White House for a year-and-a-half, this was his first state dinner, and dress was formal. The White House had ripped up the soil in the middle of the garden, laid down a floor, set up tables and hung a tent and an air conditioner overhead to keep the capital's famed humidity from annoying the guests. The dinner continued the emphasis on warm friendship and good feeling that Clinton and Akihito made earlier in the day in speeches on the White House South Lawn. Akihito said he was impressed with the way the Americans were "guided by the sense of what they believe is right." Clinton, for his part, said Japan was a "civilization of great elegance," which could revere its ancestors while innovating for the future. Akihito, 60, and Michiko, 59, wield no real power but represent a monarchy dating back at least to the seventh century. They are on a two-week, 11-city sightseeing and goodwill tour that began in Atlanta. The South Lawn welcoming ceremony Monday morning was full of traditional pomp and circumstance, and included a reference to the war. Akihito, who last visited the White House as a crown prince 40 years ago to see President Dwight Eisenhower, said Japan and the United States had "overcome the deplorable rupture" brought about by World War II.