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After a series of weak PMs and persistent economic recession in the last few years, the widespread assumption in Washington and beyond has been that Japan is slowly but certainly fading out of the world's centrestage. In the last few weeks he has been in power, Abe has sought to shake Japan, East Asia and the world out of the certitudes on Japan's inevitable decline. Making bold moves to revive the economy, standing up to Chinese pressure over the disputed islands that Beijing calls Diaoyu and Japan Senkaku, proposing an increase in defence spending and calling for far-reaching changes in Japan's peace constitution, Abe has generated shock waves.