Japan - Restless Competitor

Book excerpt: In this important new and controversial study about the nature and focus of the Japanese economic agenda, the author argues forcefully that the official mind-set of leading bureaucrats, top politicians and big business, makes it virtually impossible for the western industrialized world to do business on an equal footing. Put simply, it is a question of western free-market economics facing Japanese economic nationalism, which is, by its very nature, both an expansive and a protectionist ideology. International observers continue to ask is Japan changing?' or more forcefully, is Japan capable of change?'. Notions of reform' and restructuring' are today part of the Japanese lexicon, but appear to hold little substance. Trevor argues that any western notion of Japan changing fundamentally (i.e. adopting western, or Anglo-Saxon, philosophies) is facile completely unrealistic. This book is for everyone who wonders what motivates Japan's politico-economic system, and whether it is changing.