On June 23rd, the Australian Financial Review published the article, “Japan’s woes are a warning to the world, says Yoichi Funabashi” (By Greg Earl)

“If there is one thing that keeps Japan afloat in the eyes of its stoic citizens and often mystified foreigners, it is a sense of an exceptional history.

This is the country that went from outright isolation to Asia’s most potent military, most modern economy and a beguiling artistic culture in a few decades in the late 1800s. And then it did it all over again – without perhaps acknowledging the military part – in the 1950s recovery from the Pacific War.

So after two lost decades of economic stagnation what will it take for it to happen all over again? Well, it never will and that’s not such a bad thing, according to Yoichi Funabashi, who arrives in Australia this week with a distinctive message for anyone worried about the future of our broadest relationship in Asia.”

Read the full article