My initial task was to take a broad overview of social, economic, and political developments in “the East,” but a more modest request is surely in order. Even to confine myself to “Asia” would mean to address an area equivalent to one-third of the planet’s land surface, with more than half the world’s population. I have chosen to primarily discuss the nations of the region that have loomed large in the discussion of “the East Asian Economic Miracle.” My method is not so much as to consider particular countries in isolation, but rather to discuss the emergence of a regional economy. I concentrate on the role of Japan and the growing importance of China. I also talk about the four newly industrializing economies, or the four dragons or four tigers (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan) and the ASEAN-4 (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand).
