Sun still rising: "juggernaut Japan" of the '80s gave way, in the U.S. press, to a narrative of economic obsolescence. That's what the Japanese wanted us to believe.

FOR THOSE WHO CLAIM TO UNDERSTAND THE global economy, here's a pertinent question: Which East Asian economic powerhouse recently, announced the largest current-account surplus in world history?

The answer is Japan, although very few readers of the American press are likely to have noticed. Given the continuing media obsession with China, little news about East Asia's other giant economy makes it into print or onto television these days. Yet in most of the ways that matter to current U.S. economic policy, Japan remains far more important than China.

To be sure, China is ...

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