The End of Pax Americana

The Loss of Empire and Hikikomori Nationalism

Naoki Sakai

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781478014911
  9781478013976
• eBook ISBN:
  9781478022213
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: History

In The End of Pax Americana, Naoki Sakai focuses on U.S. hegemony's long history in East Asia and the effects of its decline on contemporary conceptions of internationality. Engaging with themes of nationality in conjunction with internationality, the civilizational construction of differences between East and West, and empire and decolonization, Sakai focuses on the formation of a nationalism of hikikomori, or "reclusive withdrawal"—Japan's increasingly inward-looking tendency since the late 1990s, named for the phenomenon of the nation's young people sequestering themselves from public life. Sakai argues that the exhaustion of Pax Americana and the post--World War II international order—under which Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and China experienced rapid modernization through consumer capitalism and a media revolution—signals neither the "decline of the West" nor the rise of the East, but, rather a dislocation and decentering of European and North American political, economic, diplomatic, and intellectual influence. This decentering is symbolized by the sense of the loss of old colonial empires such as those of Japan, Britain, and the United States.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. History and Responsibility: Debates Over the Showa History
• 2. From Relational Identity to Specific Identity: On Equality and Nationality
• 3. Asian Theory and European Humanity: On The Question of anthropological Difference
• 4. “You Asians”: On the Historical Role of the Binary of the west and Asia
• 5. Addressing the Multitude of Foreigners, Echoing Foucault / Naoki Sakai and Jon Solomon
• 6. The Loss of Empire and Inward-Looking Society
• Conclusion: Shame and Decolonization
• Appendix 1. Memorandum on Policy towards Japan / Edwin O. Reischauer
• Appendix 2. Statement on Racism Prepared by William Haver and Naoki Sakai, March 20, 1987, in Chicago / William Haver and Naoki Sakai
• Notes
• References
• Index