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They recognize the diversity in the Communist world, contend that unfettered by ideology, Japan should be ready for all sorts of actions or options. In their demands for a more sophisticated foreign policy, they have given impetus to Premier Sato's idea of a Japan fully involved with the rest of Asia. Their leader is Tokyo University Professor Yonosuke Nagai, 42, who maintains that the Sino-Soviet split and the unspoken "cold alliance" between Russia and the U.S. have given Japan the chance to recover power. Thus, while Japan is undoubtedly a bulwark of democracy in Asia, the U.S. will have to learn not to lean too hard on it or to take Japan for granted. Eventually, Japan will be strong and confident enough to go her own way—and that way may not always be precisely the U.S.'s way.
For now, though, most Japanese—including many of its government leaders—are quite content to remain passive and to rely totally on trade with the West and the U.S. nuclear umbrella to prolong the 21-year postwar honeymoon of peace and prosperity. After all, Article 9 of the U.S.-imposed constitution forbids war for any purpose but "self-defense." Japan today spends less on defense ($1.3 billion a year, or barely 1% of its gross national product) than any other major industrial nation. Indeed, the Japanese Self-Defense Force is something of a joke in an Asia that teems with massive armies. It consists chiefly of 171,500 ground troops and a navy that weighs a scant 140,000 tons—just a bit more than the combined tonnage of the Imperial Navy's two biggest battleships. Its antiaircraft missile force—four battalions strong—is trotted out now and then, but although it can make a corner of Tokyo look like Red Square, it is still not much to rave about.
Turning Point. Sato himself is in basic agreement with the New Realists, but because of his own concern with consensus, he may have a hard time meeting their demands. Japan's economy faces stringent problems of inflation (a 41% rise in prices since 1960), and any greater military spending could turn the Japanese boom into a pre-Styrofoam bust. What is more, the conservatives will have to adapt to the slow but consistent move of Japanese politics toward the mass, urban-based system espoused by the Soka Gakkai rather than the ward-style system of the past. "Japan is coming to a historic turning point," says Sato. "There has to be a new ideal born in order to restore the human quality now buried in a society of affluence."
The events of recent weeks have given Sato a lively launch pad from which to attain those goals. China's madness makes Japan's stability look more promising than ever. Having inherited the best of China's traditions—wisdom and confidence—Japan can remain ahead of its neighbor for the rest of the century, perhaps for even longer. In the process, it could teach China and other countries an essentially Asian lesson of adaptability and patience. Those are qualities that the entire continent, if not the world beyond, is in dire need of learning.
* Among them Printmaker Kiyoshi Saito, who did this week's TIME cover.
* Who carried on the family tradition of adopting his wife's name in order to provide her family with a male heir.