Kenneth Pyle, Japan Rising: Power and Purpose in a New Era

This book, by Kenneth Pyle, has probably been my favorite so far.  Pyle combines studies of Japanese psychology, culture, and history to produce a very convincing narrative about the different stages of Japanese grand-strategy since, well, ancient times.  The whole point is to explain the strange 20-year "malaise" that has seemingly plagued the Japanese national direction, starting after a recession in the Japanese economy during the late 80's and early 90's.  To Pyle, Japan is simply biding its time.  Pyle asserts that the Japanese "situational" ethic, combined with the realist ethos it gained from nearly 200 years of pure, war-prone feudalism, dictates that the country charts its course by adapting itself to world conditions rather than by following deep, universal, principles from within.  In this way, they follow what Pyle says to be the "Prussian model," whereby a state's domestic focus is wholly dependent on its course in foreign policy.  As Pyle also notes at the beginning of the book, this is a hard concept for Americans to truly understand, because the United States has always generated foreign policy based around internally-generated principles, with our brand of American liberalism being the most recent.  With the end of the Cold War in 1991, the rapid effects of trade and technological change, and the rise of China, these past two decades have presented Japan with an uncertain international climate.  There is no clear system to which Japan's leaders and people can adapt themselves with purpose and resolve.  As a comparison, consider Japan's manipulation of the security situation during the Cold War to focus exclusively on economic growth, or how it adapted to liberal ideology following the Treaty of Versailles and the Washington Naval Treaties.  Even during the heyday of the militaristic Japanese empire, much of its ideology and strategy was borrowed from European fascism, out of the belief that it represented the way of the future.  Now, however, there is no clear answer - our international environment is is open and changing quickly, in an unprecedented way.  According to Pyle, the Japanese are waiting to evaluate the longevity of U.S. power and the potential strength of China before they make a decision, or are able to discern a new evolving world order upon which they will act.  It could be that now, as one of the world's largest powers, Japan needs to abandon its past habits and find internally-generated principles to serve as guideposts for its own independent foreign-policy.  It may also be that Japan will need to seek Constitutional revision and take responsibility for its own security.  We will have to see!