Under the new world order, Japan's international business activity is being organized through tight networks that link banks, industrial corporations and trading companies and that are displacing their main domestic problems onto Asia. This book argues that since the US and Europe are refusing to fulfil that function, Japan is forming a new three-zone strategy in which production, marketing and finance are tightly co-ordinated within each zone but in which there is also an overall shift away from North America and Europe towards Asia.

Under the new world order, Japan's international business activity is being organized through tight networks that link banks, industrial corporations and trading companies and that are displacing their main domestic problems onto Asia. This book argues that since the US and Europe are refusing to fulfil that function, Japan is forming a new three-zone strategy in which production, marketing and finance are tightly co-ordinated within each zone but in which there is also an overall shift away from North America and Europe towards Asia.

Originally published in 1983, this book analyses the crisis that began in Japan with the 'oil shock' of 1973. Assembling a large body of statistical data, derived from government sources and a survey of over fifty companies, the book is rich in empirical information, much of which had not been published in English before. The living and working conditions, age and sex composition, relative size and potential strength, ideologies and organisation of all the main social classes are examined. Through his often highly critical use of analytical studies by Japanese Marxists, the author reveals a strong tradition of sophisticated theoretical Marxism to rival even that of the French and yet largely unknown to Western scholars. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Japanese culture, economics, social science and political science.

The spectacular rise of the yen in the mid-1980s has unleashed a new wave of imperialism from Japan. Its origins are traced to a series of crises and rivalries between the two great capitalist powers, Japan and the USA. To escape the high yen, Japanese capital is closing down factories at home and shifting them overseas. Some are going to the advanced countries, but the book's main focus is on the search for cheap labour in Southeast Asia to make parts for Japan's two leading industries: motor vehicles and electronics.

The spectacular rise of the yen in the mid-1980s has unleashed a new wave of imperialism from Japan. Its origins are traced to a series of crises and rivalries between the two great capitalist powers, Japan and the USA. To escape the high yen, Japanese capital is closing down factories at home and shifting them overseas. Some are going to the advanced countries, but the book's main focus is on the search for cheap labour in Southeast Asia to make parts for Japan's two leading industries: motor vehicles and electronics.

Leon’s twin, Lenny, had the best imagination in the world. He could do a back flip from a standing start and tell rude jokes nonstop for hours. But a year ago Lenny died, and Leon's family hasn't been the same since.

When a new boy, Arnold, starts at Leon's school, he has no idea what to think: Arnold doesn’t understand jokes, sarcasm is lost on him and he can be completely blunt. Leon has never met anyone like Arnold before, and an unlikely friendship blossoms. Before long things start to get seriously bonkers, and the two boys are breaking windows, accidentally holding up a bank and getting arrested after a disagreement with a baguette.

But amidst all this madness, can Awkward Arnold actually help Leon to sort his life out?

Capitol Records commemorates the 65th anniversary of John Lennon'sbirth with the release of Working Class Hero - The Definitive Lennon. The double CD set, executively produced by Yoko Ono, will offer the most comprehensive collection of Lennon's hit singles and key album tracks to date - 38 songs in all, with a combined playing time of over two and one-half hours. Born in Liverpool, England on October 9, 1940 and assassinated in New York City just over forty years later (December 8, 1980), Lennon rendered a vision of life that was simultaneously reflective, utopian and poignantly realistic. Reflecting his social activism ("Give Peace A Chance," "Power To The People," "Gimme Some Truth," "Woman Is The Nigger Of The World"), idealism ("Imagine," "Mind Games," "Instant Karma!"), his hedonistic "lost weekend," as he called the 18 months he spent separated from Yoko Ono in the early 1970's ("Nobody Loves You When You're Down And Out," "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night," the rollicking duet with Elton John that gave him his first #1 single as a solo artist), and the happiness he found in later years as a self-described "househusband," ("(Just Like) Starting Over," "Watching The Wheels," "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)"), Working Class Hero - The Definitive Lennoncaptures him in all his complexity.Mastered from the most up-to-date sources, the collection includes material from John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), Imagine (1971), Sometime In New York City (1972), Mind Games (1973), Walls and Bridges (1974), Rock 'N' Roll (1975), Double Fantasy (1980), Live In New York City (recorded in 1972, but not released until 1986) as well as numerous singles and tracks from Milk and Honey (1984) and Anthology (1998), the posthumous collections of Lennon's unreleased recordings.