ABSTRACT
The difficulties that Japan faces as the new millennium approaches are the product of a shift in psychology from inertial optimism toward a sudden loss of confidence. Japan was the most egalitarian society among the Group of Seven (G7) or Group of Eight (G8) countries in terms of income distribution. For a long time the G7 summit was the only annual multilateral gathering attended annually by the Japanese Prime Minister, as Japan was not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the European Union, nor the Commonwealth. Central to the origin of the G7 in the middle of the 1970s was the change in the relative strength of the United States, due to the trauma of Vietnam, and the concomitant rise of Japan and Western Europe. The Russian issue is a specific instance of the G7/G8 summit’s positive contribution to global governance.
