The Enigma of Japanese Power - Hardcover

Van Wolferen, Karel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0333443217 ISBN 13: 9780333443217

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990

Synopsis

The Enigma of Japanese Power by Karel Van Wolferen, Macmillan, London, 1989, First Printing, First Edition. This is a collectible, Hardcover book and dust jacket. The book is black cloth over boards with gold lettering on the spine. The dust jacket has been placed in an archival, clear Mylar jacket for further protection and preservation. This is a survey of every aspect of Japanese life, political and economic, social and psychological, unravelling the enigma of Japan in the modern world revealing that Japan's amassed wealth has brought little benefit to the ordinary Japanese. The author shows how the docile conformity , near absence of litigation and lack of individualism - characterising Japanese society and culture - originates in political purpose. Japan has the institutions of a parliamentary democracy, yet is effectively a one-party state and the power of the Japanese prime minister is less than that of any other head of government in Asia or the West. Japan is governed to all appearances with no centre of accountable power. Karl van Wolferen has lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in Japan for some quarter of a century. Last year he won the Dutch equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.

About this title

Review

Few Americans have examined carefully the nation whose economy and industry is bound up with their own, whose future will inescapably shape theirs--Japan, that is. Dutch journalist Karel van Wolferen does the job, and very well indeed, depicting a Japan alternately awed and disgusted by the world beyond its shores, governed by a puppet emperor in the service of the zaikaijin, a gerontocracy of businessmen who control the national economy, just as they have done for generations. Their hierarchy is reinforced by the fear that, as in 1945, hostile powers will not only overpower the Japanese economy but denature the Japanese people, introducing foreign concepts of democracy and even the specter of an "impure race." Although Van Wolferen balances his account by highlighting what he regards as positive Japanese traits, including thrift, respect for elders, industriousness, and self-control, The Enigma of Japanese Power remains a controversial text in the nation it assays to describe with discomforting accuracy.

From the Inside Flap

A full-scale examination of the inner workings of Japan's political and industrial system.

About this edition

• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0333443217
• ISBN 13: 9780333443217
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1