INTRODUCTION

IN THE LATTER half of the 1980s, and especially with the dissolution of the borders between West and East Germany in the autumn of 1989, the whole of Europe plunged into a period of tumultuous changes in the social, political, and economic regimes. The upheaval sent shock waves across the globe, even affecting Japan. In fact, the collapse of the Japanese political regime of 1955, which used to pivot around the rivalry between two major political parties, may be seen as part of the chain reaction to the European upheaval. This was not the first time that Japan was shaken by an upheaval in Europe. More specifically, the conclusion of the Soviet-German Nonaggression Pact in the summer of 1939 led to the wholesale resignation of the Hiranuma government, and the outbreak of war in Europe shortly thereafter as well as the outbreak of the war between Germany and the Soviet Union two years later became one of the factors that caused Japan to take a wrong turning.

There are, of course, a number of differences between the historical experience and the present turn of events. For one thing, unlike the previous occasion, Europe today is moving toward a Europe-wide regional integration. For another, the relations between Japan and Europe are now radically different from those in the late 1930s. Previously, Japan was on the receiving end of the shocks coming from Europe, and affected unilaterally by them; it was possible (though perhaps not appropriate) to explain social and economic developments in Europe without any reference to developments in Japan. Now, however, the Japanese economy has grown too large to be neglected in explaining the present socioeconomic upheaval in Europe. On the contrary, Japan's economic power has been one of the important factors responsible for triggering the upheaval. In fact, European efforts to unify the European Community (EC) market by the end of 1992 might be said to have been undertaken primarily as a European response to the economic challenge posed by Japan. One might also say that the collapse of the socialist systems of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was prompted, to a large extent, by the weakening of their economies under the overwhelming impact of the rapidly growing economies of East and Southeast Asia with their close links with Japan's economy and private firms.