The sun appears to be setting, not rising, in Japan these days. Yoshihiko Noda, the new Japanese Premier, has inherited a government that has largely lost the faith of its people. Were it not bad enough that the small island nation suffered a massive earthquake in March and a subsequent nuclear crisis, the country's finances, even prior to the earthquake, are spiraling into out of control debt.
Japan's hegemony in the East Asian region is fast disappearing. With China christening its first aircraft carrier and growing at an impressive sustained rate, Japan, a country with no military and an aging population, has no hard power in the region. Only its ties to the United States and its cultural influence around the world are keeping Japan as a major player in international affairs.
Japan will need to pursue a more demure, austere public policy in the coming decades in order to keep their state afloat. Environmental degradation, crippling debt, and continued reconstruction in the wake of a disaster will require a new direction. Never again will Japan rise to the heights it once held; the Empire of the Rising Sun is soon to be eclipsed by China's sleeping dragon.
