Volume 36, Number 12 · July 20, 1989
The Real Japan
By James Fallows
The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation
by Karel van Wolferen
Knopf, 496 pp., $24.95
Trading Places: How We Allowed Japan to Take the Lead
by Clyde V. Prestowitz Jr.
Basic Books, 365 pp., $19.95
Karel van Wolferen's The Enigma of Japanese Power is the subject of much controversy and has been generally vilified in Japan, even though it has not been officially published there, is written in a language most Japanese cannot read, and does much to explain the roots of the political crisis that has preoccupied Japan for most of the last year. The book would be important for non-Japanese readers even if it had evoked no reaction whatever from the Japanese. The Enigma of Japanese Power will, I think, stand with other classic attempts by foreigners to interpret Japanese society and institutions, including Ruth Benedict's The Chrysanthemum and the Sword and Chalmers Johnson's MITI and the Japanese Miracle. Like those books, this one will change the course of subsequent debate about Japan; it will be very hard for anyone to discuss the Japanese political system without responding to Van Wolferen's argument. The intensity of the Japanese reaction against the book underscores the significance of the messages Van Wolferen is trying to convey.
Review, 5243 words
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