I was fascinated with Prof. Nakharin MEKTRAIRAT's recent article posted on this Forum.

It is particularly interesting that "all students of Thai politics today, whether serious or not, have taken at least one or two classes on Japanese politics and history" since, for example, US politics and even international politics are usually not required (and thus not attended) for Law and Political Science students in Japan.

Prof. MEKTRAIRAT points out the problems of regarding the Japanese and Thai political systems as similar and that the Japanese model is transferable to South East Asian countries. Several months ago the Economist talked about the South East Asia model of development and that the Japanese model can only apply to S. Korea (if I recall correctly).

I am curious,

(1) How is Japanese politics, as comparative analysis, taught in South East (or North East) Asian countries?

(2) Is Japan really perceived/taught/researched as a model, and what are the problems?

(3) How is Japan's role in the region perceived? Does it owe a lot to ongoing research mostly in the US and Japan, or are there a lot of indigenous analyses from each country (if so what kind are they?).

I would appreciate any feedback on the above matters.

Nobuhiro Hiwatari