First came Henry Kissinger’s secret mission to meet Mao Zedong to prepare President Richard Nixon’s visit to China; then came the so-called Nixon Shock – the decision just a short time later to end the US dollar’s direct convertibility to gold (a pillar of the post-war international monetary system created at Bretton Woods in 1944). The opening to China and the Nixon Shock confirmed the position of those in Japan who knew that the country could not remain on permanent sabbatical from its foreign-policy role and responsibilities.