Why Does Trump Want to Turn America Japanese?

Asia expert Ezra Vogel published his influential book “Japan as Number One” 40 years ago. At the time, he argued that the U.S. needed to adopt aspects of Japan’s supposedly superior economic system if it wanted to compete with the East Asian powerhouse. Policymakers in Washington were wise to ignore him. While Japan sank into a financial crisis and three decades of malaise, the U.S. has continued to prosper.

As officials from the two countries meet this week to begin hashing out a bilateral free-trade pact, U.S. President Donald Trump seems to be reconsidering Vogel’s advice. His preferred policies would essentially emulate those that underpinned not just Japan’s rise but its subsequent fall. If he persists, the U.S. economy could suffer the same fate.