Article: Japan quietly seeks global leadership niches.(WORLD)

Byline: Amelia Newcomb Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Tokyo -- In the 1980s, the buzz here was about "Japan bashing" - the biting criticism of a country that was eviscerating America's postwar industrial dominance. This is still the world's second-biggest economy. But more recently, Japanese have spoken in bemused terms about "Japan passing" - shorthand for a country feeling overshadowed by a rising China and India.

Japan's meteoric economic rise never led to a parallel surge in diplomatic clout. But today, as a pacesetter in everything from green cars to pop culture, it seeks to carve out a bigger role in world affairs as a "soft power." ...

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