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Japan and the Shackles of the Past (Hardcover)
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Japan and the Shackles of the Past (Hardcover)
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Should we care about Japan anymore? It has a long history and a
rich artistic heritage; kids today can't seem to get enough of its
popular culture; and it is supposed to be America's number one ally
in Asia-Pacific. But Washington treats the place with something
between absent-mindedness and contempt, and while some fret that
Tokyo could drag the US into an unwanted confrontation with China,
it has otherwise essentially disappeared from the American radar
screen. A quarter-century ago, Tokyo's stock exchange was bigger
than New York's and the Japanese industrial juggernaut seemed
destined to sweep all before it. Now, Japan is seen as a has-been
with a sluggish economy, an aging population, dysfunctional
politics, and a business landscape dominated by yesterday's
champions. Does it even matter today except as an object lesson in
how not to run a country? R. Taggart Murphy argues that yes, we
should care about Japan and, yes, the country matters-it matters
very much. Murphy concedes that with the exception of its pop
culture, Japan has indeed been out of sight and out of mind in
recent decades. But he argues that this is already changing.
Political and economic developments in Japan today risk upheaval in
the pivotal arena of Northeast Asia; parallels with Europe on the
eve of the First World War are not misplaced. America's
half-completed effort to remake Japan in the late 1940s is
unraveling in ways that will not be to Washington's liking-ironic,
since the American foreign policy and defense establishment is
directly culpable for what has happened. Murphy traces the roots of
these events far back into Japanese history and argues that the
seeming exception of the vitality of its pop culture to the
country's supposed malaise is no exception at all but rather
provides critical clues to what is going on now. Along the way, he
shares insights into everything from Japan's politics and economics
to the texture of daily life, gender relations, the changing
business landscape, and both popular and high culture. He places
particular emphasis on the story of the fraught, quasi-pathological
US-Japan relationship, arguing that it is central to understanding
Japan today - and to the prospects for continued American global
hegemony.
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