Japan’s economy

  • Secure the Strait of Hormuz by Charging Tolls

    Navigation is becoming dangerous not only through the Strait of Hormuz, but also through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea. This is intolerable for both oil-producing nations and trading nations. Nor does the United States military appear to retain the ability to secure these waterways by force. . If military force cannot solve the problem,…

  • The Postwar World and the Shifting Currents Beneath It

    (This is a slightly revised version of my article to be published in Newsweek Japan on September 8.) . The Post-Cold War Era and the Expansion of American Power . The international situation today can broadly be described as the “post-Cold War” era. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, which divided the world for decades…

  • A World History Free from Both Eurocentrism and Orientalism　3

    (The source text of this series is “In Search of Lost Modernity” by Akio KAWATO. The English edition of this book (originally written in Japanese) is on https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hiRK7kjbX0Hxd2NOxPqtQlVWgjDHgKCr/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MB0Me9P5Lpa2HGceuJUdMqqQ2CRHQSxa/edit The copyright belongs to the author, Akio Kawato . This installment highlights what the author considers to be the most important aspects of Mesopotamia. While ancient Greek civilization drew many of…

  • A Yellow Warning Light Is Flashing for U.S. Finance

    A yellow warning light is now flashing over America’s financial markets. Excessive Treasury issuance has been driving up long-term interest rates. This could lead to a sharp decline in Treasury prices, a fiscal crisis, and a loss of confidence in the dollar. It could also trigger a stock-market crash, severely reducing the wealth of America’s middle class. . Treasury Secretary…

  • Will China’s Humanoid Robots Replace the Chinese?

    Chinese humanoid robots that can run, jump, and perform all sorts of acrobatic feats have been attracting a great deal of attention lately. Watching them, one might even begin to wonder whether the day will come when China’s 1.4 billion people themselves are replaced by robots. Well, that is a joke. But what, then, has happened to Japan, a country…

  • Could U.S. Treasuries Take a Tumble in September?

    Simon and Garfunkel used to sing: August, die she must, The autumn winds blow chilly and cold, September, I’ll remember, A love once new has now grown old. Are the U.S. treasuries following a similar fate? . The amount of outstanding U.S. government debt has now grown to slightly more than one year’s GDP. When Treasury securities mature, the government…

  • Rethinking Japan’s Place in a Rising Asia

    (This article appeared in Newsweek Japan on August 18.) On August 8, news broke that both South Korea and Taiwan had surpassed Japan in exports during the first half of this year. Since the mid-1990s, I had already grown weary of hearing the world sneer that “Japan is finished—even in Asia.” This latest news felt almost like the final blow.…

  • How Japan Realized Economic Development 1: The Myth of the “Japanese Model”

    （Until the rise of South Korea and, later, China, Japan’s economic development was a major focus of attention for developing countries and former socialist nations seeking economic reform. This was because Japan was the only non-white country to have achieved industrialization.Although Japan’s economy is not currently attracting much global attention, there will likely come a time when interest returns. In…

  • In Japan innovations occur within companies rather than by loners

    Japan’s public broadcaster NHK airs a program called Project X. Each episode tells the story of people who joined forces to develop a new technology or build something remarkable—a massive dam, the QR Code, a lunar exploration robot (tiny ones), and many others. One of the pleasures of the program is that the people who actually did the work return…

  • A Sunshade for the Planet

    　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　.Akio KAWATO Summer is coming again, and with it the heat. After years of record-breaking temperatures, even COP—the annual United Nations climate conference—seems to be losing its sense of direction. The more desperately the world tries to cut CO₂ emissions, the more the thermometer appears to mock us by climbing ever higher. . As a result, some rather creative ideas…