Japan needs a new kind of Kamikaze

For tens of centuries Japan thrived as a closed society, protected by the sea from the creative destroyers of China, who would benefit from the cultural pollination by the nomadic invaders. Now, the creative destroyers of China are not ethnic but economic. Japan's WWII destructive creation has run its course and it could benefit from the powerful new Kamikaze force of women, youth, and immigrants.

While the Sea of Japan and its Kamikaze had protected Japan from China, it lived in China's shadow. Globalization has removed the physical protection offered by the Sea of Japan, and Japan is again faced with a resurgent China. More than a century ago, when both were faced with the creative destroyers of industrialized nations, China resisted by attempting to close itself but failed and that failure resulted in more than a century of humiliation and destruction. Whereas, Japan took a wiser route of the Meiji Restoration by welcoming the destroyers and redirecting the forces in a creative way. Are the current Japanese leaders wise enough to take that plunge? Could it challenge and overcome the current self-preserving, self-serving Shogunate of the corporate bosses? If it does not, Japan will live another tens of centuries in China's shadow.

Thoughts on the recent economic eclipse, based on the Economist's article "Japan as number three: Watching China whizz by." Accessed on August 26, 2010 from The Economist at http://www.economist.com/node/16847828?story_id=16847828&fsrc=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+economist%2Ffull_print_edition+%28The+Economist%3A+Full+print+edition%29.