In South Korea, because of the fragility of its political institutions, because it too has delayed banking reform but most of all because unlike in Japan and South-East Asia the rot in Korea is not confined to finance but extends across many of the country's biggest industrial conglomerates (see article).

ECONOMIST: Reality hits Japan

She also boasted this week of an agreement to set up a fund to buy toxic debts from banks in South-East Asia, China, South Korea and Japan.

ECONOMIST: Asia and the crisis

Overall, the investment rate in East and South-East Asia is now close to the average in Japan, a much richer country.

ECONOMIST: Why oil exporters and East Asians are reluctant to spend

Most of those enrolled are from outside the U.S., and 44, 000 are from East Asia, which includes China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan, Dr. Faust said in an interview.

WSJ: Harvard Expands Reach in Asia

If that can be done, a recovering Japan would be a big comfort to South Korea and the rest of East Asia.

ECONOMIST: Reality hits Japan

That particular issue is too sensitive, involving bigger fry, such as America, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea, for the less powerful countries of South-East Asia to play much of a role.

ECONOMIST: Let a hundred forums bloom

The structure of industry in Japan has changed as Japanese companies have moved production to Europe, America and South-East Asia.

ECONOMIST: The whine of success

Such an outcome would give China far greater power projection in the East and South China Seas -- through which flow much of East Asia's trade, including the bulk of Japan and South Korea's oil imports.

CNN: Milestones and Millstones

This boom is helping to lessen South-East Asia's dependence on exports to America, Europe and Japan, which are stuck in the doldrums.

ECONOMIST: Trade in Asia

On Wednesday it agreed on timetables for liberalising trade and investment with Japan, already a major presence in the region, and with India, whose commercial links with South-East Asia have sadly atrophied since the 10th century.

ECONOMIST: Noodle soup