Japan in 2010

Please join us at the New America Foundation as Adam Posen and Steven Vogel address these compelling issues:

After ten years of stagnation, few people today expect a Japanese return to prominence, either economically or in U.S. consciousness. Of course, at the start of the 1990s, few people expected hyper-competitive Japan to recede so quickly from being the "Number One" economy. Looking beyond today's difficulties, what should American policymakers expect of Japan in 10 years' time? Will relations be smoother or more contentious than today, or simply irrelevant?

The ultimate determinants of both Japanese strength and U.S.-Japan relations can be found in the play of financial integration and technological progress. These forces, abetted by American policy, have propelled the U.S. to unprecedented peacetime dominance. Some would assert that those same forces, compounded by Japanese policy, are consigning Japan to ever diminishing wealth and significance. Our speakers will argue that economic and technological imperatives will force Japan to adjust to the New Economy, whatever political resistance may be encountered along the way. Furthermore, this process will build transpacific coalitions and strengthen private-sector actors relative to both governments. Relations between the U.S. and Japan will be closer once past a transitional phase, and Japan will be better off.

Participants

• Adam Posen
  Senior Fellow, Institute for International Economics


• Steven Vogel
  Co-Author

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