Japan needs true vision of peace

In 1979, Harvard University professor and American sociologist, the late Ezra Vogel, published a book that became a runaway bestseller in both Japan and the United States.

- Nassrine Azimi

While most commentators at the time focused on its eye-catching main title, Japan as Number One, the subtitle was equally compelling: Lessons for America.

Vogel at times joked that his book had sold for the wrong reasons. He had tried to understand and explain the societal forces behind Japan's economic miracle, but an even stronger motivation had been his alarm at America's decline.

He thought it was Japanese society as a whole that carried lessons for America.

Living in Japan, I find myself periodically revisiting Vogel's book, reflecting on its ongoing relevance for our times. As America moves in directions unknown to its allies, enemies and maybe even to itself, what lessons might he have drawn for Japan today?

He would start with a reality check of Japan's deep-rooted challenges: a region fraught with geopolitical tensions, the constant risk of large-scale natural disasters, an ageing and declining population and other woes.

Yet he would also be the first to remind of Japan's strengths, such as its peace credentials, its resilient democracy and rule of law, its educated population, its safety, world-class cultural traditions and public institutions.