Nakasone memories: I got my first intro to Japanese politics as an undergrad in 1982, when I spent a summer as a Diet intern for Defense Minister Soichiro Ito. Given that opportunity, I decided to write my senior thesis on defense policy. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/11/29/national/japan-prime-minister-yasuhiro-nakasone-obit/#.XeE2N797lE4">https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019...

I argued that the Liberal Democratic Party was making a slow but notable shift toward military realism, with Nakasone as a prominent voice on the more hawkish side. That shifted has continued, but more slowly than I thought, setting the stage for Koizumi, Abe.

Then in 1983 I went back to Tokyo as a reporter for the Japan Times. Nakasone was now prime minister. The big stories: Tanaka found guilty, the 1983 election, US-Japan trade friction, the Yen-Dollar talks.

I wrote a feature story on Nakasone& #39;s foreign policy. He mastered the symbolism of international leadership, inching toward the center in Summit photos and cultivating the famous "Ron-Yasu" relationship with Reagan. He also strengthened Japan& #39;s defense posture.

Then it was back to Nakasone as a grad student, with my dissertation on the neoliberal turn: Thatcher, Reagan, and - yes - Nakasone. The Japanese version was similar in rhetoric - get the government out of the market - and yet remarkably different in practice.

Nakasone focused more on fiscal balance plus privatization. The government carefully orchestrated "deregulation" to make sure incumbents survived. Yet Japan& #39;s neoliberal turn still had some long-term negative effects, undermining the government& #39;s capacity to guide the economy.