The bad news is, Japan is beset by seemingly insoluble problems. The good news is the word "seemingly." No nation whose rise to economic superpowerdom began a bare decade after being bombed to rubble in history's most destructive war will ever find anything truly "insoluble." Japan will astonish us yet. Give it 34 years, says Clyde Prestowitz. Give it till 2050.
His name rings bells in Japan — alarm bells mostly, because Prestowitz, an American labor economist who served in the 1980s as economic adviser to the administration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, earned notoriety here as a prime "Japan basher." The title of his 1993 book speaks volumes: "Trading Places: How We Are Giving Our Future to Japan and How to Reclaim It."
The '80s were a fraught phase in Japan-U.S. relations. Japan was rising, the U.S. sinking. Japan, the former pupil, was suddenly presuming to teach. American opinion was divided. Some were eager to learn, others to bash. Prestowitz, accusing Japan of unfair trade practices that included rigid protectionism while taking full advantage of the open American market, sardonically declared Japan the real winner of World War II.