English: Byōdō-in Phoenix Hall, Uji Kyoto Japan, 1059. 日本語: 平等院鳳凰堂、京都府宇治市、1059年。 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Japan is being “leaned on “hard by the USA and has been losing-face for years to the Chinese who have pointedly told them that “there cannot be two suns in the sky”.
Japan and the rest of us will have to achieve our own rapprochement with China with sensible dialogue about those areas where we can co-operate rather than compete.
There are many areas where Japan has an industrial leading edge, such as miniaturization of components, robotics and smart manufacturing. Abe needs to focus his efforts in these key areas, rather than visiting shrines where war criminals are buried which is an action likely to open old wounds with all those people who ended up on the wrong end of Japanese atrocities in the 1930s and 1940s.
As Dr Alf knows, the IMF and the ADB are creatures of American policy, which really is about “full spectrum dominance” based on powerful military forces, containment and financial domination through the Petrodollar.
It is also part of UK policy, at arms length, although we will not own up to it.
Such dominance is not possible if such a large proportion of US debt is held by China and with New York and the City of London about to be eclipsed as global financial centers by Hong Kong and Singapore in 2016, economic power is being transferred eastwards even faster.
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