Stemming the decline of the West

FORMER editor of The Economist magazine Bill Emmott published a book earlier this year with the portentous title, The Fate of the West. It has met with keen interest in Japan, which considers itself to be "Western" insofar as it has adopted democratic values.

These values are coming under heavy attack now from internal and external threats, and for Japan this is a source of real concern. Japan is, after all, an island nation surrounded by a rising China that subscribes to different values and is bordered by Russia and other non-Western powers.

Worse, from Japan's point of view, the fount of post-war democracy and democratic institutions, the United States, appears to have turned its back on liberal values under the stewardship of President Donald Trump while Europe has come close to surrendering to unprincipled populism.