Japan’s cultural uniqueness prevents it from leading an East Asian economic bloc.

Evidence

As a society and civilization unique to itself, Japan faces difficulties developing its economic ties with East Asia and dealing with its economic differences with the United States and Europe. However strong the trade and investment links Japan may forge with other East Asian countries, its cultural differences from those countries, and particularly from their largely Chinese economic elites, preclude it from creating a Japanese-led regional economic grouping comparable to NAFTA or the European Union. At the same time, its cultural differences with the West exacerbate misunderstanding and antagonism in its economic relations with the United States and Europe. It, as seems to be the case, economic integration depends on cultural commonality, Japan as a culturally lone country could have an economically lonely future. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 366