A New Path for Japan

Yukio Hatoyama, the leader of Japan’s Democratic Party and potential prime minister if his party wins the election, holds a skeptical view of the benefits of globalization. Human and environmental costs are discounted in favor of economic value. “People are simply personnel expenses,” with the global economy destroying “traditional economic activities” – e.g., agriculture – and communities. Such views beg the question of whether Japan will turn inward if the Democratic Party wins the election. But the answer is not obvious. Hatoyama advocates greater regional integration through creating an Asian currency as well as broadening the negotiation of regional territorial disputes to more than bi-lateral agreements. But with Japan clearly feeling caught between China and the US, it would be too facile to conclude that Hatoyama is embracing regionalism at the expense of globalization. Japan’s economic stature is certainly the result, in part, of its integration into the global economy. In the end, Hatoyama notes that whether an ideal becomes a reality depends on the number of people believing in that ideal. At this point, Hatoyama would appear to have thrown his lot in with those that don’t believe in the good of globalization. – YaleGlobal