It's amazing. I lived in Japan during the peak years of the so-called 'Bubble Economy', from '86 to '89. I came to believe during that time that many aspects of Japanese culture and philosophy were superior to those in the U.S. I wasn't necessarily wrong, but I didn't see the whole picture either. Busy being assimilated by the economic juggernaut, I hadn't noticed the fact that America had superiority where it really counts — in its political and cultural system.

A recent story in the New York Times is titled "As Tokyo Loses Luster, Foreign Media Move On." A couple of choice excerpts:

In the last few months, newspapers closing their Tokyo bureaus included The Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, The Independent of London, Dagens Nyheter of Sweden and Corriere della Sera of Italy.

Given the choice between covering a stalled Japan and a developing China that will probably overtake Japan economically by the middle of the century, editors choose the more dynamic country.

An even harsher note is struck in this opinion article from the same paper:

Japan is returning to its rightful place in the world, that of a middling country of vastly diminished and still declining importance in world affairs.

So what is the story? It seems that after over 10 years of stagnation, the global herd, as Thomas Friedman likes to call it in The Lexus and the Olive Tree, has collectively realized that Japan lacks the ability to deal with its crisis. Its political system is stuck, and no one can un-stick it. No one can bear the thought of changing the old-boy network, of becoming less reliant on cozy relationships and more reliant on efficiency and results.

And what, you may ask, is so superior about the U.S. political and cultural system? What's special about it is that it supports the economy. It is flexible, able to change quickly, reacting to the sentiments of citizens and investors. It is this flexibility which allowed the U.S. to grow after the Savings & Loan scandals of the early '90s, and which will allow us to (eventually) bring the global economy out of recession this time as well... Japan not only seems to lack such flexibility, it seems to have rigor mortis.

So now we come to the crux of the matter: which languages should I teach my children, in addition to English? Yuki and I both speak Japanese, and our Chinese is medium-well... I used to think that Japanese won hands-down, but I'm not so sure now. It's clear that Chinese will be an extremely important language. Maybe all three?? ;) Or would they burst a nodule and murder me?