This is all very interesting, but what exactly is look East? From the way it's being defined in these articles, it is implied that Japan is the "East". This might have worked in the 1980s when Dr M was holding the reins of Malaysia, but it's the worst possible option now in 2022. Also his assertion that Japan overtook the West in the past is a joke, the West simply allowed Japan to develop when it was net beneficial to them, the moment it was no longer so Japan was once again taken down by the deeply humiliating Plaza Accords.
ASEAN countries can choose China, US or sit on the fences while these two slug out, but putting your eggs in Japan now is as moronic as one can get. Even South Korea is a better option. Japan is a country that has come to a standstill since the early 1990s. It's GDP is stuck, currency has eroded over the past 3 decades just as rapidly as the Ringgit, straddled with a host of negative structural problems in which no progress has been made in resolving them. Their leading conglomerates haven't been able to innovate and come out with something that has impact on the world since the Walkman days.
Japan has completely been left out in the most cutting edge areas such as AI, Green Energy, Cloud, e-Commerce, IOT, Industrial 4.0, Medtech, Fintech, Advanced Chip Foundries etc. Their conglomerates are desperately holding on to whatever first mover advantages in manufacturing, automotive and engineering they've accumulated 30+ years ago and even these are being rapidly eroded by Chinese and Korean competitors.
Even their soft culture stuff like Anime, J-Pop and J-Drama have lost their appeal overseas to Korean and Chinese competitors. There has also been increasing quality scandals from supposed well known branded Japanese firms and this is in large caused by firms who couldn't keep up with the competition and had to rely on underhand tactics to keep up appearances.
In short, Japan is a tired country with a tired economy that hasn't moved out of the rut for an entire generation, Dr M is still stuck in a time capsule to think that Japan is the answer for Malaysia's next stage of development.
