Book Details

Description

Over the past decade,American readers have been reposed to a seemingly endless array of books on japan,its business practices, its national character-indeed its very soul. Until now, most of these analyses have come from Western writers, Outsiders looking in on a very different, often difficult to understand nation.

With Taichi Sakaiya's What is japan?, American readers finally have an insider's take on what makes japan tick. Candid and critical in tone, Provocative and entertaining in style, Sakaiya sheds much needed light on japan's often ambivalent view of itself.

Sakaiya tackles many of japan contradictions, giving insight explanations and citing historical precedents for many of them, He discusses:

Why most Japanese don't feel well off, despite japan's status as an affluent nation

Why Japan's educational system produces a reliable and hardworking, yet largely uncreative work force;

Why Japan has been so successful at adopting the technology and culture of other countries

A must for businesspersons and japan watchers alike, what is japan? sets a new standard for books in the field of U.S-Japan relations.

REVIEW

Taichi Sakaiya - radical centrist and outspoken decentralizer understands and conveys, as only a reformed MITI bureaucrat could, the perils of the producerist system which bulit Japanese aspirations.

 Taichi sakaiya was born in 1935 in Osaka,Japan. After receiving an economics degree from Tokyo university he joined japan ministry of international trade and industry (MITI), Where he was responsible for planning and presenting the 1970 Osaka expo and the 1975 okinawa marine expo. Since leaving MITI, he was become a best-+selling author in japan, publishing novels and nonfiction books that are widely read and very in-fluential. Mr sakaiya is the author of more than thirty books. The Knowledge-Value Revolution (Kodansha In-ternational, 1991) was his first book to be translated into English