The slowing United States and its subprime-mortgage woes are promoting the need for economic interdependency in Asia, but various hurdles must be overcome before the widely diverse economies can further solidify regional ties.
This is partly because Asian countries have different political systems, and also because they do not have a firmly established common set of values.
We must also realize that, even today, the region's views toward Japan are by no means free of the aftereffects of Japan's wartime history. And I believe one of the reasons behind this may be that the postwar Constitution is not yet fully understood by many people in the region.