The Japan That Can Say No: Why Japan Will Be First Among Equals - Softcover

Shintaro Ishihara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 067171113X ISBN 13: 9780671711139

Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 1992

Synopsis

The author, a leading Japanese statesman, asserts in this book that the balance of power has shifted and that Japan will no longer play polite sister to the US in world affairs. He claims that Japan could instantly overturn US military superiority by selling its crucial computer missile chip to the USSR. He therefore stresses that it is time for the US corporations to listen to Japanese advice on achieving long-term economic strength instead of relying on trade sanctions to bale them out. He is also convinced that America's racial prejudice, which resulted in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan and not Germany, remains rampant and is a persistent cause of friction between the two countries. This book therefore helps the reader to understand a changing world in which Japan moves towards economic and technological supremacy. A long-time member of the Japanese Parliament, Shintaro Ishihara is the award-winning author of several literary novels and the President of PEN Japan.

About this title

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Japanese

From Publishers Weekly

In this brief, arresting and abrasively frank work, Japan Diet member and novelist Ishihara plumbs the causes of friction between his country and the U.S. Claiming that dropping the A-bomb on Japan rather than on Germany conveyed American racism, he warns that nuclear superiority will go to the superpower that acquires a microchip made only in Japan. And while conceding Japanese deficiencies--poor self-image, staunch clannishness--the author contends that U.S. trade deficits are due to a pursuit of immediate profits at the expense of long-range economic planning such as that practiced in his country. Calling for changed attitudes on both sides, Ishihara proposes a detailed agenda of "drastic steps" on the part of the U.S. to restore its world competitiveness and to foster an equal partnership with Japan--which he deems essential to both nations as a factor in post-Cold War global realignments. $75,000 ad/promo.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon and Schuster
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 067171113X
• ISBN 13: 9780671711139
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 160