How Japan’s new economic model could inspire others to ‘look east’

In the 1980s, then Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad launched his “Look East” policy, urging his country and others in Southeast Asia to emulate the state-led economic development models of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, rather than those of market-dominated Western nations.China subsequently emerged as a prime example of state-led development, but Japan is now leaning again towards a more dirigiste model under the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, not only in industrial development but also in savings and the deployment of financial assets.Tokyo’s move, announced last November, to designate 17 strategic fields such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, nuclear fusion, aviation, shipbuilding and energy development, among others, attracted scant international attention and is ostensibly driven by economic security considerations. The real motives go deeper.