This book aims to provide a glimpse into the vital debate among Japanese and Western scholars, policymakers, and private sector leaders concerning Japan's future course—a process with implications extending far beyond Japan to the entire world political system.

How relevant today is an alliance that was forged between a powerful United States and a weak Japan in the context of a cold war struggle with the Soviet Union? In what ways have the changes in the relative power positions of the two countries and the structural changes in the world economy created new challenges to the U.S.-Japan relationship and how are the two countries responding to those challenges? These are some of the important questions addressed by the eight Japanese and American authors of this volume. Their focus ranges from issues of military relations, trade and financial management, and shifting security perspectives to the roles of the mass media in the bilateral relationship. A truly binational effort, the book brings together the thinking of some of the best-trained younger political scientists to focus on the present and future of one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world.

Japan's new politics challenge some basic assumptions about U.S.-Japan alliance management. CFR Senior Fellow Sheila A. Smith explores this new era of alternating parties in power and reveals the growing importance of Japan's domestic politics in shaping alliance cooperation.

Japan's regional geoeconomic strategy -- Foreign economic policy, domestic institutions and regional governance -- Geoeconomics of the Asia-Pacific -- Transformation in the Japanese political economy -- Trade and investment : a gradual path -- Money and finance : an uneven path -- Development and foreign aid : a hybrid path.

This book analyzes US-Japan relations amidst the changing nature of power and international relations. Chapters explore the relative successes and shortcomings of American liberalism and Japanese Neomercantilism, the bilateral trade duels over finance, high technology, agriculture, and other industries, and the costs and benefits of foreign investment and military spending. The book concludes with suggestions for a systemic and radical overhaul of American policies toward itself, the global economy, and Japan.

Shinzo Abe entered politics burdened by high expectations: that he would change Japan. In 2007, seemingly overwhelmed, he resigned after only a year as prime minister. Yet, following five years of reinvention, he masterfully regained the premiership in 2012, and now dominates Japanese democracy as no leader has done before. Abe has inspired fierce loyalty among his followers, cowing Japan's left with his ambitious economic program and support for the security and armed forces. He has staked a leadership role for Japan in a region being rapidly transformed by the rise of China and India, while carefully preserving an ironclad relationship with Trump's America. The Iconoclast tells the story of Abe's meteoric rise and stunning fall, his remarkable comeback, and his unlikely emergence as a global statesman laying the groundwork for Japan's survival in a turbulent century.

Under the new world order, Japan's international business activity is being organised through tight networks that link banks, industrial corporations and trading companies and that are displacing onto Asia their main domestic problems. Since the US and Europe are refusing to fulfil that function, Japan is forming a new three-zone strategy in which production, marketing and finance are tightly coordinated within each zone but in which there is also an overall shift away from North America and Europe towards Asia.