Despite twenty years of stagnation, the Japanese economic system has proven exceptional resilience within the face of COVID-19 and the worldwide vitality disaster. While US President-elect Donald Trump’s second administration poses the most important problem in a long time, a steady democracy, rooted in a powerful nationwide identification, will see the nation via.

TOKYO – I first visited Japan as a younger member of the UK Parliament within the early Eighties. Yukio Satoh, an formidable and forward-thinking diplomat who would later function Japan’s ambassador to the United Nations, had just lately been posted to the nation’s London embassy. Recognizing that the political dialogue between the United Kingdom and Japan was dominated by an older era, Satoh sought to foster connections with a youthful cohort of British politicians.

To this finish, Satoh invited a number of newly elected MPs, together with me, to go to Japan and have interaction with our Japanese counterparts. Our fortnight-long journey included a weekend within the constituency of a Diet (Japanese parliament) member. My host’s constituency was centered across the spa city of Hanamaki, well-known for its noodles.

That go to sparked my longstanding enthusiasm for Japan, which led me to return dozens of instances over time, in varied capacities: MP, cupboard minister, final British governor of Hong Kong, and European commissioner for exterior relations.

More just lately, I visited Japan as a global adviser to the Praemium Imperiale, a prestigious award commemorating the centennial of the Japan Art Association’s founding. Established below the patronage of the Japanese Imperial household and supported by a beneficiant business grant, it has been likened to a Nobel Prize for the humanities.

The Praemium Imperiale is a vital part of Japan’s tender energy. Over its 35-year historical past, it has been awarded to celebrated artists and designers from Japan and around the globe.

Japan’s contributions to the visible arts, movie, and structure have left an enduring impression on me. But for a lot of, essentially the most spectacular factor in regards to the nation is its extraordinary financial success.

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Japan’s postwar increase is usually described as an “economic miracle.” While I’m skeptical of this time period, there isn’t a denying that the nation skilled a exceptional transformation between the late Fifties and Nineteen Nineties. This could be attributed to a number of key components: relative political stability, efficient policymaking, and substantial investments in schooling, job coaching, and public well being, in addition to the flexibility to capitalize on alternatives created by more and more globalized markets. I witnessed these dynamics firsthand throughout my tenure as governor of Hong Kong.

To make certain, the miracle didn’t final. After a long time of speedy GDP progress, particularly between 1973 and 1991, the nation entered a protracted interval of financial stagnation and deflation, sometimes called the “lost decades.”

Japan’s post-1990 financial stagnation was triggered by efforts to chill an overheated property sector via interest-rate hikes and a strong-yen coverage meant to deal with US commerce considerations. These measures had been largely a results of the 1985 Plaza Accord, which boosted the yen’s worth and undermined the competitiveness of Japanese exports.

Given his antagonism towards America’s allies and his threats to launch a commerce conflict, US President-elect Donald Trump’s second time period poses essentially the most severe problem to Japan’s financial resilience in a long time. One can solely hope that Japanese policymakers confront Trump’s proposed protectionist tariffs with the identical resolve their predecessors demonstrated in countering Ronald Reagan’s commerce restrictions and forex manipulation.

Fortunately, Japan finds itself in a comparatively sturdy place, with current knowledge underscoring its exceptional resilience within the face of the dual shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and the worldwide vitality disaster. Admittedly, financial progress is slowing as soon as once more – the International Monetary Fund tasks GDP to rise by simply 0.3% in 2024, down from 1.7% in 2023 – and Japan has been overtaken by Germany because the world’s third-largest economic system. But it stays a affluent nation with an exceptionally excessive life expectancy.

A go to to Japan reveals the supply of its resilience: a powerful democratic society firmly rooted within the rule of regulation. But what impresses me most is the nation’s potential to navigate the stress between identification politics and globalization with out succumbing to the divisiveness that at the moment plagues many different liberal democracies.

While Japan faces a number of daunting challenges – not least a quickly growing old and shrinking inhabitants – it retains a profound sense of nationwide identification that appears to develop stronger, not weaker, in an more and more interconnected world. Its self-assurance has endured the pressures of a globalized economic system, which is why I’m assured that it may possibly climate regardless of the future might maintain.