According to the author, the year 2000 will find a Japan racked by internal political, economic and social strife. He explains how the old Japan of the 1980s, the country that many loved to fear and loathe, will have collapsed under the pressure of a rising crime rate and increasing drug problems; a declining birth rate, increasing labour shortage and ageing population; breakdown in public services; declining corporate profits and increased competition from Third World manufacturers; skyrocketing educational expenses and rising violence in schools; the uncertain future of the yen and strains in the financial system itself; Japan's huge financial exposure in economically troubled Third World countries; and a resurgence of trade protectionism and investment restrictions in Europe and America. The author shows how Japan's snail-paced decision-making process will be incapable of responding to the urgent needs of the current decade and shows how a new Japan will emerge, a country engaged in a frantic and tumultuous search for its national self-identity. This new Japan will remain an important member of the global community, but one destined to play a supporting role in world affairs.