Introduction

Abstract

This work is a systematic study of the political economy of East Asia. A central theme that runs throughout the book is that the political economy of East Asia has been consistently defined by the interactions of regional and national dynamics, and in this process Japan has been playing a pivotal role in not only organizing the regional economy around the Japanese economic power but also influencing the development path of national economies in the region through its developmental state structure. In the post-World War II years, the political economy of East Asia was substantially defined by Cold War politics and American hegemony. Since the 1980s, however, there has also been a rising influence of the Chinese power on the political economy of East Asia. As a result, the regional political economy is now jointly influenced by American, Japanese, Chinese, and other national powers, and the region is moving toward increasing economic integration in the early 21st century.