Word: japanize
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During his Nov. 13 visit to Tokyo, U.S. President Barack Obama emphasized that Japan, as the world's second largest economy, has a special role in the global marketplace. One week later, it's becoming clear the country may be special for another reason. While much of the rest of the planet frets about a coming rise in inflation - a consequence of economic recovery, massive stimulus spending and a weakening dollar - Japan faces the opposite problem: a potentially devastating bout of deflation...
...host is unpredictable South Africa Following the sleek, well-organized World Cups hosted by Germany in 2006 and co-hosted by Japan and South Korea in 2002, South Africa has been beset by difficulties from the beginning, including construction delays, labor strikes and questions over adequate transportation links and security for hundreds of thousands of fans. But the tournament's organizers are confident these problems will be resolved in time. Since the end of apartheid, the country has hosted successful cricket and rugby World Cups, and the country hopes the soccer tournament will mark a new moment of unity...
...known without apology: Barack Obama is not above the bow. He dipped his head all through Asia - greeting Japan's Emperor with a deep bend at the waist, nodding to Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on a Beijing tarmac, even bobbing forward in gratitude before his tour guide at the Courtyard of Loyal Obedience in the Forbidden City...
...glossed over the more central disagreements. At a meeting with college students in Shanghai, for example, Obama qualified his objections to Chinese Internet censorship, saying, "I recognize that different countries have different traditions." In Tokyo, Obama endorsed more talks about U.S. bases on the island of Okinawa, even though Japan had already signed an agreement to let the unpopular garrisons stay...
...even more important difference is that the stakes are higher with China. Japan seemed like a fearsome economic rival a quarter-century ago, but it wasn't really a political rival and, with a population less than half that of the U.S., it was unlikely ever to surpass the U.S. as an economic power. China, with its billion-plus population, seems destined to surpass the U.S. in economic clout, and it appears to have designs on rivaling the U.S. as a political and military power. Which means there's no easy way out of the U.S.-China trade impasse...