Letter of the month: 10 best books on Japanese Political Economy

I have been thinking about what 10 books one should read and understand to have a good grasp of what makes Japanese political economy tick. It’s actually quite difficult.

Here are some ideas:
Let's start with the easy ones, which people should not disagree with:

-Takafusa Nakamura "Postwar Japanese economic history": For a broad sweep of the hows and whys of postwar growth

-Kent Calder "Crisis and compensation": I view this book as the finest exposition of the role of the LDP within the Japanese economy. 

-Okimoto and Rohlen (eds.) "Inside the Japanese system": This is a bit of a cheat since it includes so many essays, but is perfect for getting a feel for some of the major issues in so many different fields. 

Now onto the more controversial picks

-Mark Ramseyer and Minoru Nakazato "Japanese Law": Without an understanding of the legal system, it is difficult to understand the economy. Reading this book by itself is probably not enough if one is not familiar with comparative law, but better than nothing.

-Frances Rosenbluth's Financial politics in postwar Japan: An oldie since it is pre Big Bang, but it illustrates the balance of power between business (small and big), the bureaucracy and politics and the difficulty of change.

Books that others might include, but that I probably would not:

-Chalmers Johnson's MITI and the Japanese Miracle

-Takatoshi Ito's The Japanese Economy

-David Flath's The Japanese Economy

Ideas, comments?

Ken Okamura
Oxford, UK

JRN: We think this list shows Mr. Okamura’s age. Any thoughts? Write to us with your own suggestions. 

It’s Electric

I had a quick look at your site this morning. It looks good and should provide material for several of the classes I teach.

I do, however, wonder about the statistics on buried power lines in Tokyo and London. I lived in Britain for eight years and still own a house in Sheffield. I've cycled in many areas and driven in most parts of England as well as Wales and Scotland. I can only recall seeing power poles a few times and then only in rural areas. I would be very hard put to come up with any place in England comparable to what you have in even relatively up market residential areas in Japan—industrial size power poles on both sides of the road plus smaller poles, sometimes less than a meter away from their bigger brothers, carrying telephone and CATV wires. Further, I think it would be next to impossible to find in England what you have in the two quite large parks near my home—two sets of high tension power pylons marching right through the park and through the adjacent residential area next to ICU. Even in the grotty, decayed industrial area between Sheffield and Rotherham, you do not have conspicuous above ground power lines.

Although I stand ready to be corrected, I cannot believe that the statistics on London and Tokyo were compiled using the same definitions and same survey techniques.

EHK 
Tokyo, Japan

JRN: Good question. First, a clarification: this discussion stems from an assertion made by Dogs and Demons author, Alex Kerr, that “Japan is the only advanced country that does not bury telephone cables and electric wires.” While the data clearly indicate hyperbole from Mr. Kerr, at least where electric wires are concerned (click here for further details on Japan’s Underground Installation Rate), we revisited the UK data and found that south western portions of the UK, not London, are the better examples.

Originally, our review intended to make a distinction between transmission wires (high voltage cables designed to send electricity over long distances) and distribution wires (low-voltage lines designed to deliver electricity to end-users), and then point only to distribution cables as a point of comparison between both countries for lack of newspaper space. That said, a different (and more current) data source now indicates that comparing the percentage of buried network cables in Tokyo to London may not be the best example (click here for further details on the UK’s Underground Installation Rate). 

As EHK rightly points out, varying definitions and survey techniques may make point-to-point comparisons difficult; the UK Office of Gas and Electricity’s survey, for example, aggregates the network segments, Japanese company data do not. Still, a simple back-of-the-envelope calculation totaling Japan’s underground transmission and distribution lines shows some areas of the UK that lag behind the Kanto region’s 51% underground installation rate total, especially SWALEC (43%) and South Western (39%). 

Undoubtedly, some JapanReview.Net readers will argue that such rigorous fact checking is unnecessarily pedantic. We might have agreed with them had this been an uncommonly small oversight. However, Dogs and Demons is rife with hyperbolic statements designed to buttress its take-home message of an aberrant Japan, sometimes—as this case shows—to the point of sloppiness. When such arguments are fundamental to Mr. Kerr's thesis, he should get them right. By failing to do so, his credibility is undermined.

Japan, Asia

I took a look of JapanReview.Net. It's simply excellent!

After seeing your site, I am further convinced that Asia can only be healthily developed with the full participation of Japan. Though painfully remembered by all the rest for what happened during World War II (China, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan etc), it's perhaps time to be open with the past and let go isolation and hatred, by acknowledging and reconciling. 

During my two trips to Japan, while strolling in certain parts of Kyoto and Tokyo, it reminded me so much of the Tang Dynasty in ancient China. I was amazed.

Civilization belongs to the whole human kind, regardless where it was originated from; therefore we need each other to correct our mistakes and move forward in equal and cooperative terms. 

C.L.Q.
European Commission
AIDCO, Brussels

Book Suggestion

Book: Defeat into Victory by Field Marshal Slim.
"One of the books that one should read about Japan."

I recently read Field Marshal Slim's book on the Burma campaign - Defeat into Victory. (Pan Books paperback edition from 1999). It’s a good read on the campaign and has some interesting insights into the business of being a general in modern warfare. It also has a cogent description of Japanese generalship, which is useful when looking at recent political economic decision making:

"The Japanese were as ruthless and bold as ants while their designs went well, but if those plans were disturbed or thrown out – ant-like again – they fell into confusion, were slow to readjust themselves, and invariably clung too long to their original schemes. … The fundamental fault of their generalship was a lack of moral, as distinct from physical, courage. They were not prepared to admit that they had made a mistake, that their plans had misfired and needed recasting. That would have meant personal failure in the service of the Emperor and loss of face. Rather than confess that, they passed on to their subordinates, unchanged, orders they had themselves received, well knowing that with the resources available the tasks demanded were impossible. Time and again, this blind passing of responsibility ran down a chain of disaster from the Commander-in-Chief to the lowest levels of leadership. It is true that in war determination by itself may achieve results, while flexibility without determination in reserve, cannot, but it is only the blending of the two that brings final success. The hardest test of generalship is to hold this balance between determination and flexibility. In this the Japanese failed. They scored highly for determination; they paid heavily for lack of flexibility." 

T.O.
London, UK

We love to talk about ourselves

Just a couple of quick questions. How many people involved in this site live in Japan? And in what other countries? Do the editors speak Japanese well enough to understand material from the Japanese media?

D.S.
Location unknown

JRN: The editors both live in Japan (Tokyo). Combined, they speak English, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, and very poor Mandarin and French. In their “day” jobs as financial analysts at investment banks, the editors are regular readers of the Nikkei Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, Denki Shimbun, and Shokuhin Shimbun, not to mention close contact with several Japanese corporations for further clarifications on daily newsflow. We hope that meets your approval. Our fantastic multi-national computer team of Indian, Pakistani and Japanese programmers and web gurus is based in Chiba, Japan. And yes, they all speak and read Japanese fluently. Please refer to the About Us page for further details.