Focusing on the decline of U.S. hegemony in East Asia, Naoki Sakai explores the implications for contemporary international relations and nationalism. He examines Japan's hikikomori phenomenon, reflecting its growing inwardness since the late 1990s. Sakai argues that the exhaustion of Pax Americana and the post-World War II order does not signify a simple eastward shift in power, but rather a complex dislocation of Western influence, marked by the fading of former colonial empires and a reconfiguration of global dynamics.
