Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg News
Updated Nov. 13, 2009
By Martin Fackler, Hiroko Tabuchi
Overview
Japan, with the world's second-largest economy, is now at a crossroads, re-evaluating its place in Asia, its relationship with the United States and what course to take at home. With the rejection of the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party in national elections in August 2009, and the ascendancy of the archrival Democrats, major changes appear to be in store.
Table of Contents
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama was elected on a tide of voter dissatisfaction, after three bumbling Liberal Democratic leaders lasted a year or less in office, and Japan was hit hard by the global economic slowdown. In power, he has moved cautiously on putting his campaign promises into action.
During President Obama's first visit to Tokyo in November 2009, he announced that he would establish a high-level working group on the contentious issue of the continuing presence of a Marine base in Okinawa.
The decision, announced at a news conference with Mr. Hatoyama just a few hours after he touched down in Tokyo to begin his first presidential trip to Asia, appears to represent a concession by the Obama administration to at least consider Japan’s concerns about the base, which is deeply unpopular in Okinawa and which the newly-elected Japanese government had promised to relocate.
The visit came as the two countries were grappling with a shift in their overall relationship. In the past, squabbles between the United States and Japan have focused mostly on economic issues, with the Washington and Tokyo engaging in trade wars over luxury cars and semiconductors. The security alliance, meanwhile, was more stable.
Now, things appeared to have flipped, with economic ties on a solid footing, and the most contentious part of the relationship falling squarely in the security arena.
Beyond the specific points of friction, like the Okinawa base, leaders of the Democratic Party have been blunt about seeking a more “equal” relationship with the United States, and Japanese officials say they now intend to focus more on cementing their relationships with other Asian nations.
The Post-War Era Economy
For close to five decades after World War II, Japan's economy grew steadily through policies that closely aligned government and large manufacturers. That formula reached its peak in the late 1980s, when many Americans worried about falling behind what seemed an unstoppable export machine.
But a real estate bust brought that growth to an end, and was followed by a long intractable slump that lasted through the 1990s. In 2001 the newly elected prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, introduced policies meant to revive the economy through deregulation, privatization, spending cuts and tax breaks. Growth resumed in January 2002 and turned into the longest economic expansion through the post-war era. But Mr. Koizumi's policies also brought about a growing income gap in a rapidly aging country. The country's long-term outstanding debt has also grown, to the equivalent of 147 percent of annual gross domestic product.
Foreign Policy: The Military
In foreign policy, the rise of China and North Korea's nuclear ambitions led Japan to actively review long-held policies. After decades of sheltering under the American security umbrella, Japan has begun seeking a more assertive role in the region, even while strengthening ties to the U.S.
After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Japan dispatched its naval vessels to the Indian Ocean to supply fuel for warships of the coalition forces operating in Afghanistan, and sent troops to Iraq for humanitarian assistance, along with planes to transport cargo and American troops. (In late 2009, the newly elected Democratic Party said it plans to withdraw from the refueling arrangement.)
The Japanese military, which has one of the largest budgets and some of the most sophisticated weapons in the world, began developing its offensive capabilities. Japan also decided to join the U.S. in developing and financing a missile defense shield, and its defense agency was upgraded to a full ministry in 2007. Parliament also passed a bill calling for a referendum as early as 2010 to amend the U.S.-imposed "peace constitution."
Foreign Policy: Nationalism and China
Mr. Koizumi and his successor in 2006, Shinzo Abe, helped win approval of these changes by emphasizing nationalism. The country's neighbors were outraged by Mr. Koizumi's annual visits to the Yasukuni shrine, which pays tribute to several war criminals, by Tokyo's approval of revisionist textbooks that whitewash Japan's wartime history and by Mr. Abe's refusal to fully acknowledge the Japan military's role in coercing women into sex slavery during the war. Mr. Abe, who gained popularity as a cabinet minister by pursuing the issue of past abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korea, took a hawkish stance toward Pyongyang.
Mr. Abe abruptly stepped down in September 2007. His successor, Yasuo Fukuda, visited China in December 2007, seeking to further improve relations between the two Asian giants. On Sept. 1, 2008, Mr. Fukuda, whose popularity had sunk to Mr. Abe's levels, announced his own resignation in a similarly abrupt and unexpected manner.
The Rise and Fall of the
Administration of Taro Aso
Taro Aso, an outspoken conservative who campaigned with promises to stimulate Japan's flagging economy, was chosen on Sept. 22, 2008, by the governing Liberal Democratic Party to become the next prime minister. But on Aug. 30, 2009, the Liberal Democrats were roundly defeated by the rival Democratic Party, and Mr. Aso resigned as party leader the next day. The Democrats' leader,Mr. Hatoyama became prime minister in September.
The Liberal Democrats had governed Japan for most of its postwar history, but in recent times the party appeared unable to adapt to a changing era. Disgruntled voters increasingly blamed them for failing to outgrow traditional pork-barrel politics and find an end to the nation's seemingly intractable political paralysis and its economic decline in the current recession. Even the construction industry, the major recipient of government largess, turned against the party as 40 percent of its companies fell into bankruptcy over the last decade.
Meanwhile, the opposition Democratic Party was riding a surge in popularity. Its platform promised more cash in hand for Japanese struggling through the deep recession: cash allowances to families with children, free tuition and more social security. The Liberal Democrats called the plan nonsensical and sure to bankrupt Japan.
But with country's public debt already surpassing 180 percent of gross domestic product, a debt-to-G.D.P. Ratio that is by some measures second only to Zimbabwe's, economists argue that neither party has a viable plan for long-term growth.
Japan's export-dependent economy was hit especially hard by the downturn in the United States and Europe because those economies are key markets for corporate giants like Panasonic, Nissan and Toyota. At one point during four consecutive quarters of contraction, exports fell to half their pre-crisis levels.
But Japan's economy rebounded in the second quarter of 2009. A turnaround in exports and a vast fiscal stimulus program helped produce a 0.9 percent economic expansion, equivalent to annualized growth of 3.7 percent.
The New Government
Mr. Hatoyama has spoken of the end of American-dominated globalization and of the need to reorient Japan toward Asia. His party's campaign manifesto calls for an "equal partnership" with the United States and a "reconsidering" of the 50,000-strong American military presence.
In particular, the Hatoyama and Obama administrations have clashed on the United States Marine airbase at Futenma in Okinawa, the southern island that is home to about two-thirds of the 37,000 shore-based American military personnel in Japan. For years, Japanese residents — and residents of Okinawa in particular — have complained about the military base. Mr. Hatoyama campaigned for office on a pledge to revisit a 2006 agreement to relocate a Marine airfield in Okinawa to a less populated part of the island, and to move thousands of Marines from Okinawa to Guam.
American officials have refused to give ground on the issue, but have gone out of their way to seek other methods of smoothing over the bumps in the relationship.
New York Times Travel Guide: Japan
Related: Japan Travel Guide
NYT Articles on Japan
A list of articles covering Japan in The New York Times.
Japan Resources
A list of resources from around the web about Japan as selected by topic curators
Books
- A Hundred Years of Japanese Film by Donald Richie
- Arthritic Japan: The Slow Pace of Economic Reform by Edward Lincoln
- Dogs and Demons: Tales From the Dark Side of Japan by Alex Kerr
- Inventing Japan: 1853-1964 by Ian Buruma
- Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. by Roland Kelts
- Tokyo Underworld by Robert Whiting
Reference
- Bank of Japan: Statistics
- CIA World Factbook: Country profile
- OECD Economic Survey of Japan 2009
- State Department: History and overview of Japan
- The Economist: Forecasts and economic data
Newspapers
Technology
Autos
Government
- Japan External Trade Organization
- Japan International Cooperation Agency
- Japan National Tourism Organization
- Prime Minister's Office
- The Japan Foundation
Research
- Center for Japanese Studies, UC Berkeley
- Harvard Business School Japan Research Center
- Japan Institute of International Affairs
- Japan Policy Research Institute
- Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies
Commentary
Popular Culture
About the Topic Curators
Martin Fackler has been the Tokyo bureau chief for The New York Times since February 2009. A native of Iowa who grew up in Georgia, he was first captivated by Asia more than 20 years ago when he spent his sophomore year in college studying Mandarin and classical Chinese at Taiwan's Tunghai University. A chance to study Japanese at Keio University in Tokyo led him to Japan, where he later did graduate work in economics at the University of Tokyo. He has Masters degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana and the University of California, Berkeley, where he was pursuing a Ph.D. in Asian history. Wearying of student poverty, he left for the excitement of journalism and foreign correspondence when he got a job in the Tokyo bureau of Bloomberg News in 1996. A year and a half later, he joined the Associated Press, working first in Tokyo and then in New York, Beijing and Shanghai. In 2003, he returned to Japan to work for the Wall Street Journal, covering finance, monetary policy, trade and diplomacy. He joined The New York Times two years later, where he worked as business correspondent before his current position.
Hiroko Tabuchi has reported on Japanese business and economics for The Times since February 2009. Her beat covers some of the world's most innovative companies, including Toyota and Nintendo, as well as the country's cutting-edge electronics and environmental technology. She has also written on the many challenges Japan faces as it emerges from its worst recession in recent memory, with a focus on women and youth. She is a native of Kobe, Japan, and was previously a reporter at The Wall Street Journal and at The Associated Press.
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