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Title: Japan, the System That Soured : The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Economic Miracle by Richard Katz ISBN: 0765603101 Publisher: M.E.Sharpe Pub. Date: July, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.2
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent analysis of Japanese economy
Comment: Richard Katz, a senior editor at The Oriental Economist shows his grasp of the Japanese economy in an excellent text. He shows why the system that helped Japan to become the great maufacturing power, became a liability. Taking into account the writings of both traditional economists and the views of political scientists, this book is a must-read for intelligent Japan watchers.
Rating: 4
Summary: This book integrates colloquially a lot of solid research.
Comment: This book is essential for those who want to understand Japan's peculiar economy at one -- or perhaps a few -- sittings. It is not a "Japan bashing" book, but rather explains what Japan did right some decades ago, notes some failures, and -- most importantly -- spells out how Japan's 1970s-era switch to increasingly costly measures to shield its domestic economic losers set both Japan and the world up for big troubles down the line.
The introductory chapter sketches the terrain and the next seven chapters, starting with Japan's "Deformed Dual Economy," are easy to read, albeit redundantly written (redundancy is actually a plus for non-economists who need a lot of restatement to take points on board). Chapter 13 "Beyond Revisionism and Traditionalism" is worth the price of admission (to the paperback), giving a neat summary of two decades of American writing on Japan's economic miracle, the Japan justifiers and the "Japan bashing" revisionists. Anyone who missed this vast literature won't feel so guilty after reading Katz' marvelous summary/analysis.
The last chapter ("Interregnum: Whither Japan") is a brave attempt, but .... Leaving aside the merits of Katz' argument that further electoral reform is absolutely essential to shake up Japan's system and open up its economy, the section on electoral reform (pp. 321-331) is extremely confusing for anyone not already steeped in recent Japanese domestic politics. The section skips back and forth in time, assumes too much knowledge, and rehashes Western (too idealistic?) faith in the eventual coming of a true and pure opposition party.
Some aspects of Japan this reviewer would have liked to see more of are: why the tremendous resistance to inward foreign direct investment, and both more exceptions that disprove the rule and more examples of how foreigners came and bent their spears; some sense of whether there are signficant schools of thought within Japan that mirror Katz' and the Western "neo-centrist" view; and some attention to the peculiar postal savings system and its distorting impact on the Japanese budget and economic choices. These are quibbles.
Anyone thinking of buying, or anyone who has read Katz' book, needs absolutely to read a "companion" piece, a fine article about the troubles caused by Japan's (until very recently totally unreformed) banking system. See Peter Hartcher's "Can Japan Come Back" in "National Interest" Winter 1998/99 No. 54. Hartcher hits some of the same themes as Katz but goes into fascinating depth on the history of Japan's banking law/financial institutions, tracing back to WWII and on into the period when the system helped usefully mobilize domestic savings. Like Katz, Hartcher points out when Japan should have realized that "enough was enough" and spells out the terrible consequences both for Japan and the world. Again, no "Japan bashing," just telling it like it is.
Now, it would be great to see a "colloquial" book like this one done on China, not the "system that soured," but "the enigma that seems to suceed."
Rating: 1
Summary: Would be relatively worthless even if it was timely
Comment: It is suprisingly how people could review such a weak book
on Japan positively, considering its author is a run of the mill journalist attempting to morph into an economist and write about Japan-- and doesnt live in Japan or speak Japanese, beside the fact that he has no experience in finance. Though writing on the topic may not demand in-country experience, experience working in finance or language ability- it certainly would help. It is a regurgitation of old comments and arguments published years after the fact- literally no original thought. Old wine in new bottle. The follow up is then a book about how Japan will return. Surprise. Japan: The Coming Collapse by Brian Reading was timely and though journalistic more substantive. Works by Chalmers Johnson (though dated) and Tag Murphy (former investment banker in Tokyo) are a lot more useful. See Japan's Policy Trap: Dollars, Deflation, and the Crisis of Japanese Finance by Akio Mikuni, R. Taggert Murphy, R. Taggart Murphy, Michael H. Armacost (the Katz book is just hopping to a certain extent on this more reputable bandwagon). Another important book is Arthritic Japan: The Slow Pace of Economic Reform by Edward J. Lincoln. Ed Lincoln is a real economist that speaks Japanese and has been dedicated to following Japan for a while. His previous work, Japan's Unequal Trade, was an important work.
Unfortunately, due to the decreased interest in Japan over the past decade, the number of quality books (especially on finance) has declined and, unfortunately, there are a good number of books written in Japanese that would be useful but are not translated into English.
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Title: Japanese Phoenix: The Long Road to Economic Revival by Richard Katz ISBN: 0765610744 Publisher: M.E.Sharpe Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Arthritic Japan: The Slow Pace of Economic Reform by Edward J. Lincoln ISBN: 0815700733 Publisher: The Brookings Institution Pub. Date: 15 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Japan's Policy Trap: Dollars, Deflation, and the Crisis of Japanese Finance by Akio Mikuni, R. Taggart Murphy, Michael H. Armacost ISBN: 0815702221 Publisher: The Brookings Institution Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $38.95 |
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Title: Financial Policy and Central Banking in Japan by Thomas F. Cargill, Michael M. Hutchison, Takatoshi Ito ISBN: 0262032856 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 15 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: Japan's Economic Dilemma : The Institutional Origins of Prosperity and Stagnation by Bai Gao ISBN: 0521793734 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: September, 2001 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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