[sutekidane]

Economy is the key, culture and politics follow the economy. If Europe and the US did not have the strongest economy, their culture would not have the influence it has today.

Both China and India has around 10 times the population of Japan and 4 times the population of the US. So Japan's post war rise is not comparable. US as the 3rd largest country (in population) in the world is not threatened by the rise of any other country, except China and India. EU, even if it becomes a United States of Europe, is a cousin and a close ally, and it is still far off and it is only 1.5 times bigger.

But for the first time in world history for the last few centuries, we have a situation where two older powerful and populous countries are rising and taking their places back. That obviously puts the US based security architecture in the world in disarray, that is the issue. This affects Japan as well as the rest of the world. It is hard for people to visualize that kind of future, so people ignore, but it is coming down the tracks like a freight train that will hit the world, which is still sleeping I think.

My question is do Japanese policy establishment and people believe that it is possible to have such a future, which I am sure they do and in that case what is the plan for security, if the US can no longer protect them?