This episode of the Korea Now podcast features an interview that Jed Lea-Henry conducted with Brad Glosserman. They speak about Brad’s new book ‘Peak Japan: The End of Great Ambitions’, the history of Japan, the different rises and falls in Japanese ambitions and national trajectories, the unique moment that Japan found themselves in at the end of the Cold War, the economic stagnation that followed, the impact of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the political landscape inside Japan, the leadership dynamics that have played out over the years, Japan’s foreign policy and particularly how it relates to the rise of China, the 2011 triple crises of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown, the impact this had on Japanese ideas of national identity, Shinzo Abe’s return to power in 2012, and deep psychological questions about where Japan finds itself today, what its relative decline has meant, how young Japanese people see their country, and the realisation that Japan might have hit its peak and so is now in a phase of comfortable downsizing rather than an unhappy and uncontrollable collapse.

Brad Glosserman is both the Deputy Director of, and Visiting Professor at, the Tama University Center for Rule Making Strategies, as well as a Senior Advisor for the Pacific Forum. Brad was also the Executive Director of the Pacific Forum for 15 years, and is the author of ‘The Future of U.S.-Korea-Japan Relations: Balancing Values and Interests’, ‘The Japan-South Korea Identity Clash: East Asian Security and the United States’ and most pertinent to this podcast ‘Peak Japan: The End of Great Ambitions’ (Amazon; Book Depository). Brad’s regular commentary and opinion pieces can be found at: http://cc.pacforum.org/author/brad_glosserman/ and https://www.japantimes.co.jp/author/int-brad_glosserman/

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