It’s been three years since the publication of “Peak Japan” and I’ve concluded that I have half a glass.
My book has received both applause and opprobrium — you can speculate about which is greater — but its message still works for me, even though I wouldn’t mind being wrong. Last week’s report of Japan’s continuing demographic decline prompted a new look at some of the most important indicators in “Peak Japan” and they remain compelling, if not convincing.
The thesis of “Peak Japan” is simple: Powerful trends and tendencies in Japan pose formidable, if not absolute, obstacles to national ambitions to play a greater role in the world. The argument was easily misrepresented. Often, I was criticized for demanding that Japan, one of the richest, safest, cleanest and most comfortable places on the planet, change to conform to some American (or neoliberal) notion of how a country should be run. Not true.
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