The US

  • 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 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…

  • A World History Free from Both Eurocentrism and Orientalism 1 Introduction

    I’m starting a new series here. The title is “A World History Free from Both Eurocentrism and Orientalism” The source text 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). . Today is the first installment. Let’s start…

  • The U.S. Marine Corps Is Changing — and So Is Its Role in Japan

    Watching the current war with Iran, one striking feature is that U.S. Navy warships, particularly aircraft carriers, are staying away from the Strait of Hormuz—or perhaps are simply unable to get close to it. Presumably, the danger posed by mines, as well as Iranian missiles and drones, is simply too great. . If we transpose this situation to the Far…

  • 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…

  • The End of Oak Street: A Horror Story About America Today

    The day before yesterday, I went to see a new US movie The End of Oak Street. It is a horror movie in which an ordinary, middle-class suburban neighborhood is suddenly transported hundreds of millions of years into the past, leaving its residents to be chased by dinosaurs. The film was directed by David Robert Mitchell, born in 1974. .…

  • 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.…

  • Is America’s Consumer Market, the Largest in the World, a Mirage?

    What enables the United States, for all its current troubles, to throw its weight around as much as it does is the fact that it still has by far the world’s largest consumer market—more than twice the size of China’s. Many countries depend heavily on exports to the United States to keep their own economies going. . But there is…

  • Where the Space and AI Investment Frenzy May End Up: Lessons from Britain’s Railway Mania

    Elon Musk’s SpaceX went public on June 12, raising the equivalent of roughly $80 billion in a single IPO. Although its share price has eased somewhat since then, the company’s market capitalization still stood at about $1.8 trillion in mid-July, making it one of the seven to ten most valuable companies in the world. For comparison, the ten largest companies…

  • Japan should avoid unnecessarily provoking China－On the Occasion of the Renewal of the National Security Strategy

    Akio KawatoFormer Ambassador to Uzbekistan; Former DCM, Embassy of Japan in Russia . (Japan is currently conducting its once-every-few-years review of national security policy. As a result, the country’s three core strategic documents—the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy, and the Defense Buildup Program—are being revised. Recently, the Research Institute for Peace and Security (RIPS) published a collection of…