China’s energy plans have always been a function of demand and technological innovation, which are both growing rapidly in the country. But the recent tragedy at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan has introduced a new variable into China’s energy-planning function: safety. This paper provides a survey of the safety standards of China’s current nuclear power plants and the viability of the various alternatives.

This paper will seek to answer how Kishi’s experiences during the Second World War affect Japan’s post-war economic experience. In answering the above question we will come closer to understanding the complicated legacy of one of Japan’s most controversial 20th century leaders, and in so doing, also come closer to understanding Japan’s complicated World War II legacy, for the two can’t be understood without each other.

Japan’s rapid “miraculous” rise, has now been all but forgotten as China takes center stage in Asia. But Japan’s story is important, not just for the many lessons it offers, but also for the prescient foreshadowing it provides: in the long-run, Japan’s story may manifest itself in many more places.

As birthrates decrease and people live longer, the natural forces of aging will beat against public finances, political processes and educational institutions like waves on the shore. Communities will change on the most fundamental level: even family practices and cultural values are likely to bow to demographic pressures. Nowhere will these forces appear sooner and with greater foreshadowing than in Japan.

In awarding Japan its first Nobel Prize in Literature, the Committee brought worldwide attention to the works of Japan’s premier modern writer and also to the classical works of Japan that he incorporated into his writings; works that they stated would help to “preserve a genuinely national tradition of style.”