Deep breath. OK...
As the author of “Peak Japan,” for me to give an optimistic take on this country’s future is both difficult and risks undermining my brand. Still, even I can see the opportunity that Japan has to become a national security superpower. It is a long shot, but it is very real, and politicians, the public and policymakers should give it genuine consideration.
This strategy rests on three pillars. The first is the internalization and implementation of a new approach to national security, one that better reflects 21st century geopolitical and geoeconomic realities, as well as Japan’s domestic political constraints. I have long argued that there is a new national security economy, one that is shaped by the great power competition that defines contemporary international relations. Today, countries compete across a variety of interrelated domains — economic, technological, military, cultural and ideological — of which the first two are the most consequential.