A recent issue of Newsweek magazine ran a feature article on the insularity of the Japanese economy. Throughout its modern history, Japan has had an "ambiguous relationship to the outside world." How will this affect the future economic performance of Japan?

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Exhibit A: the striking lack of conversational English among many educated Japanese. In the past, says Komori, many assumed that they didn't need English, given that the primary task of the economy was making things for export. "Manufactured goods in and of themselves served as the medium of communication. But now the structure of the Japanese economy is changing. The service industry, which requires personal communications, matters far more than before." Whatever the reasons, it's clear that something has to give. Japanese companies, says Komori, have to globalize themselves. "The nature of money has changed profoundly in recent years," he says. "Capital moves so much faster than it did before. And Japanese companies [still putting emphasis on the consensus] just can't keep up with the trend."
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One indicator is the small number of Japanese students going abroad to study in a foreign country. Compared to Chinese and Korean students, Japan sends strikingly few students to the US. (Think Seoul National University, whose graduates claimed the second-largest number of US PhDs, only after UC Berkeley. See http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/6888)

It would be a fascinating project to see whether the trajectory of science and technology in Japan might be diverging from the global trend.