This new generation also understands that to make this happen, an Asian political framework must be created. With Europe as a model, they see that such a framework is not wholly incompatible with a close security relationship with the United States. The new generation is also aware that European countries, even with bad memories of World War II Germany, nonetheless accept German leadership if not primacy. By analogy, they know that a similar scenario can be tried in Japan. The thinking about economic solutions leads inevitably to the political framework and with that, military underpinning.
Much nonsense exists about Japan being unarmed.
The military option is Japan's for the taking, should it choose. In our view, the post-war consensus within Japan about Japanese political life cannot long survive the economic disaster of the 1990s and the passing of the generations that crafted that consensus. The first decade of 2000 will mark a transition from Japan thinking of itself as a great economic power to Japan thinking of itself as a great power, period. Given the de- synchronization of the global economy, we think Japan's shift is inevitable. This shift will intensify competition within the United States.