Japan’s Quiet Leadership

Mireya Solís is Director of the Center for Policy Studies and Knight Chair in Japan Studies at the Brookings Institution, where she specializes in Japanese foreign economic policy, regional integration in East Asia and U.S. economic strategy in Asia.

• Introduction: Moving Past the Narrative of StagnationSection 1. GlobalizationChapter 1: Stability amid Economic GlobalizationChapter 2: Foreign Workers: Breaking Taboos, Closing BordersSection 2. EconomicsChapter 3: What Went Wrong (and Right) in the Lost Decades?Chapter 4: Enter AbenomicsChapter 5: The Quest for Revitalization: How Fares the Middle-Class Society?Section 3. Politics Chapter 6: Change and Continuity in Japanese PoliticsChapter 7: Japan’s Democracy in the Populist EraSection 4. GeoeconomicsChapter 8: Champion of Connectivity in a Rules-Based OrderChapter 9: The Hard Edge of Japanese Economic StatecraftSection 5. GeopoliticsChapter 10: Growing Pains of a Nascent Security RoleChapter 11: A More Capable Japan: Assessing Abe’s LegacyChapter 12: Taming a Hobbesian World? Japan’s sharper security choicesConclusion: A Network Power in a Divided World

This volumeprovides incisive analyses of the social, political, and economic factors influencing Japan’s rising profile in the Indo-Pacific. Solís offers compelling evidence that the oft-cited narrative of Japan’s stagnation is to a large degree a thing of the past. Solís also explores how Japan’s reemergence as a significant actor provides a model for a variety of states experiencing the same mix of negative societal, economic, and political factors that contributed to Japan’s initial decline in influence. The significant domestic factors Solís cites that contribute to Japan's rise include the decisive, extended leadership of Shinzo Abe and his ability to overcome bureaucratic inertia in the country's domestic and international policies, which reshaped both Japanese politics and the popular reluctance to assume enhanced security arrangements in Asia. Solís also traces Japan’s successful, active reshaping role in shifting international frameworks, including enhanced security threats in Asia and the reluctance of the United States to take an active role in reshaping Asian economics through participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. An insightful book. Recommended. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals.