Maybe I'm confused, but this is written by Eamonn Fingleton, not James Fallows. I see Fallows' picture at the top, but I don't know how he's connected.
Fallows invites guest columnists when he's on vacation and when he wants to share an interesting point of view. The only notice is often the changed byline.
I stand corrected. Fallows has written a lot about Japan and did live there in the 80s and 90s. He also lived in China for a few years this century. He famously wrote an article in the early 90s arguing the US was on the wrong track and should be more like Japan. So I assumed this was from him as well. My bad.
