Regarding Robert Dujarric's Oct. 18 article, "Japan in a post-U.S. world,": I agree that Japan needs to chart a more self-reliant path. The financial decline of the United States has been hyped a bit too much and too much of the U.S. gains in southwest Asia have been ignored by left-friendly reporters. Nonetheless, nothing is forever.
In my poorly informed opinion, the problem for Japan is that while new alliances and diplomacy can solve some problems, they will work a lot better if there is an efficient, serious and adequately sized military force in the background. This will require money and people.
The people part runs into a demographic problem. The shortage of people of working and military service age cannot be solved overnight or by a sufficient number of immigrants or "guest" workers. From a distance, it looks like the major industries of Japan are going to have to work more effectively and efficiently with shorter hours for their employees in order to establish something like a normal family life for employees. As it is now, you have too many children being raised by mothers, as fathers see so little of them that they have no influence. You have Japanese women saying they don't want to get into that lifestyle and are not marrying at the best child-bearing age.
Can Japan bridge the gap between the time the U.S. fades as a Southeast Asian power and Japan builds a sufficient military force by making government spending cuts and redirecting the money to the military?
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