Japan changes with the times

JAPAN has mastered the art of the quick change. Throughout its modern history, the country has demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to adapt its policy to suit the demands of the day. In the late 19th century, Japan’s leaders undertook a rapid industrialization campaign, known as the Meiji Restoration, that catapulted the country to the rank of world power in a single generation. After World War I, Japan flirted briefly with constitutional democracy before turning sharply toward military expansionism, sensing that the future lay with the totalitarian governments of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini — and not with Europe’s constitutional democracies. Japan’s leaders switched course again after World War II and refashioned the country as a liberal democracy and an essential US ally in the Cold War.

Today, Tokyo seems to be adjusting its policy stance once more, this time to accommodate the new administration in Washington. Reuters reported Tuesday that it had obtained exclusive access to an unpublished draft of the “US-Japan Growth and Employment Initiative,” a document detailing the Japanese government’s plan to boost investment and job creation across five sectors in the United States. The document offers insight into Japan’s strategy for managing its relations with the United States under the new administration.