Yukio Hatoyama dreams of an Asian union, a utopia free of rapacious American capitalism, a region bound together by fraternity and a common currency. Were Hatoyama a soapbox orator his fantasizing could be dismissed as twaddle, but he isn't. He's about to become the next prime minister of the world's No. 2 economy, following his party's victory Sunday in a general election.
In an op-ed piece, "A New Path for Japan," that ran in The New York Times recently, the leader-in-waiting revealed his vision of Asia's future, one that has Japan hand-in-hand with China at its center as American economic and military power wanes. He describes his country as being "buffeted by the winds of market fundamentalism," a nation "damaged" by an unfettered global economy. There is, Hatoyama boldly states, "danger inherent in freedom," although he doesn't specify what variety of liberty he finds most hazardous.
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