Can Shinzo Abe Find His Way?

In Tokyo these days, it's 1989 all over again. The city's real estate market is healthy once more. Down the street from the chic office/shopping/residential complex of Roppongi Hills, a sweeping new glass-and-steel national art museum has just opened, with galleries the size of aircraft hangars. Massive—and massively expensive—Hummer suvs squeeze through the city's capillary-sized streets, ferrying the wealthy to new clubs and bars like Roppongi's Crystal Lounge, which features crystal-encrusted replicas of Michelangelo's David and the Venus de Milo . Corporate Japan's balance sheet has never been stronger, led by Toyota, which just reported a record $3.5 billion profit for the...