Today’s Japan is a quieter and less newsworthy country than it was in the 1980s, when US sociologist Ezra Vogel’s book Japan as Number One painted it as the world’s most dynamic, best organised industrial society. But running an aggressively successful and widely admired or envied economy is not necessarily the best qualification for hosting the joint annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), as Japan will be doing in October.
Takehiko Nakao, vice-minister of finance for international affairs at Japan's Ministry of Finance and the country's most senior international financial official, can probably think of plenty of reasons why Tokyo is better placed for taking this job today than it would have been in the euphoric 1980s. At least as important as the conference itself is having leading international financial officials in town for a week, which should go some way to refreshing the world’s sometimes jaundiced view of Japan.