Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
In July 2011, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation launched a project assessing the Japan-U.S. response to the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
Japan and China should defuse tensions over the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.
China and Japan both stand to lose if territorial disputes disrupt normal economic relations. Changing roles in the regional production sharing network, energy needs, and political rhetoric are all complicating the picture.
The current tension between Japan and China is as much about national pride as it is about potential natural resources.
China's trade surplus has less to do with the value of its currency than it does with rapid urbanization and the rise of production networks across East Asia.
China's rise has had very different consequences for its North Asian and Southeast Asian neighbors, in particular, making it difficult for Southeast Asia to break out of the middle income trap.
While much attention was paid to the competitive aspects of U.S.-China relations during President Obama's recent trip to Asia, the broader consequences and outcomes of the trip are more nuanced.
As the world's predominant political, economic, and military force, the United States faces a significant challenge in responding to China's rising power and influence, especially in Asia.
The underlying causes of the current debt crisis in the United States and the crisis faced by Japan in the 1980s differ fundamentally, and so will their resolutions.
While China's behavior in its surrounding seas has become more assertive in recent years, its basic strategy of avoiding conflict in favor of negotiation and cautious management, while defending against attempts by others to undermine its position, remains the same.