In retrospect, my coming of ¡°geopolitical age¡± ¡ª figuring out how the world really works ¡ª while living in Japan in the 1990s could not have been more fortuitous as I try to make sense of this moment.
The constraints on Japan¡¯s international activities ¡ª Article 9 and the mindset that produced and sustained it ¡ª forced a reassessment of more traditional means of influence. For sure, militaries, their personnel under arms and their missiles matter, but real power is exercised day to day via economic instruments: Political economy, not plutonium, determines how the world works.
Japan in the early 1990s was a paradox. It was the world¡¯s second largest economy and there were fears that it would soon overtake the United States as the leading economic power. But Japan as ¡°number one¡± was inexplicable in a world defined by the Cold War and a seeming need for military forces to safeguard the ¡°free world.¡± After all, Japan¡¯s military capabilities were severely limited by Article 9 of the Constitution. (Critics charged it was precisely the absence of a large military that allowed the country to focus on economic development and devote resources to more productive uses.)
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