ABSTRACT
The end of history will be a very sad time. The struggle for recognition, the willingness to risk 's life for a purely abstract goal, the worldwide ideological struggle that called forth daring, courage, imagination, and idealism, will be replaced by economic calculation, the endless solving of technical problems, environmental concerns, and the satisfaction of sophisticated consumer demands. The economic success of the other newly industrializing countries in Asia following on the example of Japan is by a familiar story. Liberalism in Asia was a very weak reed in the period after World War I; it is easy today to forget how gloomy Asia's political future looked as recently as ten or fifteen years ago. It is easy to forget as well how momentous the outcome of Asian ideological struggles seemed for world political development as a whole. The first Asian alternative to liberalism to be decisively defeated was the fascist represented by Imperial Japan.
