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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Area / regional studies
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Bending Adversity - Japan and the Art of Survival (Paperback)
Loot Price: R441
Discovery Miles 4 410
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Bending Adversity - Japan and the Art of Survival (Paperback)
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List price R468
Loot Price R441
Discovery Miles 4 410
You Save R27 (6%)
Expected to ship within 18 - 22 working days
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"[A]n excellent book..." -The Economist Financial Times Asia editor
David Pilling presents a fresh vision of Japan, drawing on his own
deep experience, as well as observations from a cross section of
Japanese citizenry, including novelist Haruki Murakami, former
prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, industrialists and bankers,
activists and artists, teenagers and octogenarians. Through their
voices, Pilling's Bending Adversity captures the dynamism and
diversity of contemporary Japan. Pilling's exploration begins with
the 2011 triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear
meltdown. His deep reporting reveals both Japan's vulnerabilities
and its resilience and pushes him to understand the country's past
through cycles of crisis and reconstruction. Japan's survivalist
mentality has carried it through tremendous hardship, but is also
the source of great destruction: It was the nineteenth-century
struggle to ward off colonial intent that resulted in Japan's own
imperial endeavor, culminating in the devastation of World War II.
Even the postwar economic miracle-the manufacturing and commerce
explosion that brought unprecedented economic growth and earned
Japan international clout might have been a less pure victory than
it seemed. In Bending Adversity Pilling questions what was lost in
the country's blind, aborted climb to #1. With the same rigor, he
revisits 1990-the year the economic bubble burst, and the beginning
of Japan's "lost decades"-to ask if the turning point might be
viewed differently. While financial struggle and national debt are
a reality, post-growth Japan has also successfully maintained a
stable standard of living and social cohesion. And while life has
become less certain, opportunities-in particular for the young and
for women-have diversified. Still, Japan is in many ways a country
in recovery, working to find a way forward after the events of 2011
and decades of slow growth. Bending Adversity closes with a
reflection on what the 2012 reelection of Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe, and his radical antideflation policy, might mean for Japan and
its future. Informed throughout by the insights shared by Pilling's
many interview subjects, Bending Adversity rigorously engages with
the social, spiritual, financial, and political life of Japan to
create a more nuanced representation of the oft-misunderstood
island nation and its people. The Financial Times "David Pilling
quotes a visiting MP from northern England, dazzled by Tokyo's
lights and awed by its bustling prosperity: 'If this is a
recession, I want one.' Not the least of the merits of Pilling's
hugely enjoyable and perceptive book on Japan is that he places the
denunciations of two allegedly "lost decades" in the context of
what the country is really like and its actual achievements." The
Telegraph (UK) "Pilling, the Asia editor of the Financial Times, is
perfectly placed to be our guide, and his insights are a real
rarity when very few Western journalists communicate the essence of
the world's third-largest economy in anything but the most
superficial ways. Here, there is a terrific selection of interview
subjects mixed with great reportage and fact selection... he does
get people to say wonderful things. The novelist Haruki Murakami
tells him: "When we were rich, I hated this country"...
well-written... valuable." Publishers Weekly (starred): "A probing
and insightful portrait of contemporary Japan."
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