Japan finds itself caught between a rock and a hard place. Its environment is predominantly composed of countries aspiring to be modern nation-states and imbued with quite strong nationalist ideologies. The Japanese concept of national security leads the country to adopt reactive nationalist policies and ideologies. This is also reflected in the very strong, indeed paramount, element of mercantilism on the economic and business fronts. In the areas of trade and investment especially, Japan stands out as a supreme outlier. Consequently, Japan has not made the transition from modern to post-modern state. And also as a consequence, Japan remains not only closed, but almost in a siege mentality, notably, to cite the most egregious example, in respect to immigrants. That's the hard place.

The rock, however, is that Japan's nationalism, modernism and mercantilism contribute powerfully to the nationalist, modernist and mercantilist ethos that prevails in the region. Japan's nationalism, especially in provocations such as the visits to the Yasukuni Shrine or the revision of history textbooks, greatly exacerbates an already highly tense nationalist regional environment. The number of fault lines are numerous, as we have seen, and some of them very deep. There is North Korea; there is a heavy concentration of nuclear armory; there is the situation with Taiwan; there are many tensions and territorial disputes in areas such as the East and South China Seas; there is competition for resources, especially for crude oil.