Word: japanism
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...economy is not nearly as dependent on trade as Japan's. Nonetheless, the contraction of world trade is hitting the U.S. too. This is a global recession - the World Bank has forecast that the global economy will shrink this year for the first time since 1945 - and it needs global solutions. When world leaders meet in London in April, they will be trying to coordinate a tide that lifts all boats...
...Japan can play a key part in getting growth going again. But that will require it to change, to expand its domestic economy rather than rely, as it has long done, on its exports...
That's where Japan's duality comes in. It is a nation that does not always find it easy to change, to embrace the future. In Tokyo's Ota Memorial Museum of Art this month, there is an exquisite exhibition of ukiyo-e woodblock prints displaying Japan during the Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century, when Western habits - European music and military uniforms, crinolines - were beginning to replace the old ways. In one print, a woman in traditional kimono and lacquered hair watches wistfully as a young girl, hair flying behind her, joyfully rides a bicycle...
Will today's Japan now pedal off to meet the future with confidence? At least in part, the prospects for a global economic recovery depend...
...original version of this story misidentified Japan's Liberal Democratic party as just the Democratic party...