This is not what I've been hearing. I'm pinging some Japanese (and Japan-knowledgable) Freepers for input...
For example, it has seen to it that the Japanese cannot just open a brokerage account at Merrill Lynch and invest their money in the American stock market.
Merrill Lynch has offices in every major city. They have just chosen to focus on a very select and rich clientele. There are a number of security companies and banks which serve a huge range of clients. The major banks all offer accounts denominated in major world currencies, including U.S. dollars and U.K. pounds. How easy could an American walk into say, U.S. Bank, and open an account in Japanese yen? Japanese were once heavy investors in the U.S. stock markets. But who wants to invest in a currency denominated at 133 yen to the dollar (when I left) and 107 yen today?
So many Japanophiles have said it before that it feels foolish to dredge up the old saw again, but Japan is a bit like an onion; peel off one layer, and you'll always find another there lying underneath.
I find myself at times at in awe of Japanese resilience, and then at others dismayed at a certain inflexibility. I heard a Japanese author once write, "Until it's necessary to change, it's important not to change."
My point is that continuity is as much a part of Japan as is change. And then even so, carving out your daily bread with your nose to the millstone there, you sometimes get to cynically thinking that there's no whipping this massive xenophobic burro onto a different path, and then --whoosh-- up she trots onto a different path with no warning at all...
Let me say this; I remember that it was when Japanese began immodestly kicking up their heels about the apparent superiority of their different breed of (non) capitalism that they began their great slide down into Davey Jones' locker. Now, it's been crawling along down there for, what? Thirteen years, now, I guess.
So in spite of our considerably less immodest national nature, let's we Americans not indulge in the same unhealthy haw-hawing. It's unbecoming, yes, but more importantly it's a damned foolish way to keep the breather that fate has afforded us.
The article above plumbs the question of whether Japan is the same critter as us or not --I could go on for hours and hours about that. Alas, some day that will seem an academic question; Japan will rise again, and soon.
With Asia changing the way that it is, I see a not so far off day when Japan will have nuclear weapons. Conisdering the clarity of Chinese national memory, I think she will have a need to use them.