Synopsis
Offers an economic, political, and social analysis of East Asia's growing power, explaining how it challenges the West's economic strength and political ideals and its potential for long-term impact
Reviews
Suggesting that the U.S. does not yet comprehend the ramifications of the new form of capitalism developed in Japan, Fallows, a reporter on Asia for the Atlantic Monthly and other periodicals and author of the American Book Award-winning National Defense , details them. It is this style of capitalism, rather than communism or fascism, that challenges us now, he shows. Much of Fallows's review of Japanese history and development is familiar, but his insights and scope are fresh and commanding. The purpose of economic policy in the U.S., he maintains, is to stimulate individual spending; in Japan, economic policy rewards the producers rather than the consumers and is intended to make the nation strong and invulnerable. Fallows argues that not every nation's economic policy will or can follow the American model; Japan has introduced a different and successful model and we should learn from it.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
While capitalism may have bested communism in the Cold War, Fallows (More Like Us, 1989; National Defense, 1981, which won the American Book Award) fears that the West does not realize that the world's balance of economic power is shifting from the North Atlantic to the Pacific Basin and, further, that Asian economic success is based on a system of free enterprise that diverges in crucial ways from that of the West. Fallows (who has lived and traveled in Asia as a reporter for the Atlantic Monthly) presents both an anecdotal and an analytic appraisal of the challenges that East Asia (notably Japan, but also coastal China, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand) poses to the US and its allies. To illustrate, he shows that Japan (an economic colossus whose lead many neighboring nations follow) gauges success not by what the country can purchase but by what it can make. By contrast, prevalent Anglo-Saxon economic theory measures a society's wealth in terms of consumption levels and reckons cutthroat competition (which eliminates inefficient suppliers) a necessary evil. In addition to discussing the consensus assumptions underlying Tokyo's trade and industrial policies, Fallows examines Japan's cultural and historical legacies: a late start in industrial development, the homogeneity of its population, residual xenophobia, clear political objectives, and perdurable grievances dating back to the postwar Allied occupation. By failing to grasp how and why East Asia's guided, nationalistic version of capitalism varies from the Western paradigm (which places particular value on individual rights), Fallows asserts, the West risks pursuing pointless goals in relations with the area's bellwether countries. Rather than engaging in acrimonious debate about what's fair or not, he argues, the US should learn from the economic achievements of the Pacific Basin nations, applying such principles as can be gainfully adapted from their systems to its own education, industrial, investment, and trade policies. An astute observer's provocative response to what he deems the large-scale economic challenges posed by Asia to the West. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Fallows challenges the Western world's notion that its capitalist system is the only way to go, in a well-researched, thorough, and analytic study of international business. Of particular relevance to Fallows, who reported from Asia for five years for Atlantic (in which the text of this book first appeared, in three parts), is how eastern Asian countries, not just Japan, are emerging as the new world leaders in business and technology. In fact, Fallows theorizes that the U.S.' reliance on its old regime of individual enterprise and rights is the very notion that will inevitably be our demise. Asia's economic models are strong because governments there are so strong and powerful, and the author sees even area dictatorships as having the upper hand in business; after all, there is someone at the helm to control the market. Fallows elaborates on how various countries have succeeded in vying for a competitive share of the world market, some with funding from Japan and some not. A fascinating, fresh, and potentially controversial contemplation of the global market. Mary Frances Wilkens
In the past decade hundreds of books have been published about Japan, ranging from the idolatrous-sounding Japan from Shogun to Superstate (St. Martin's, 1988) to the frankly negative theme of Michael Crichton's Rising Sun (Knopf, 1992). In contrast, Fallows ( National Defense , LJ 6/1/81) demonstrates how the Japanese economic system differs from the West's and explores some of the historical reasons for these disparities. Fallows takes Americans to task for assuming that all people and cultures are essentially the same. Westerners, he asserts, use "the wrong mental tools to classify, shape, and understand the information they receive about Asia." For example, we "know" that government intervention interferes with business efficiency, but Tokyo intercedes actively in the Japanese economy. Fallows posits the thesis that the postwar American occupation influenced Japan in ways the United States is only beginning to analyze. Succinctly, the United States did the fighting and made the big decisions; Japan concentrated on economic growth. This worked well until the Cold War ended and Japan's economic might began to outstrip the West's. The author concludes by saying that economic competition is not a matter of right or wrong, but it favors those who make their own luck. Fallows has written a lively and well-researched book. Recommended for any library whose patrons are interested in contemporary Asia.
- Mary Chatfield, Angelo State Univ. Lib., San Angelo, Tex.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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