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In 1958, Suzanne and Ezra Vogel embedded themselves in a Tokyo
suburban community, interviewing six middle-class families
regularly for a year. Their research led to Japan's New Middle
Class, a classic work on the sociology of Japan. Now, Suzanne Hall
Vogel's compelling sequel traces the evolution of Japanese society
over the ensuing decades through the lives of three of these
ordinary yet remarkable women and their daughters and
granddaughters. Vogel contends that the role of the professional
housewife constrained Japanese middle-class women in the postwar
era-and yet it empowered them as well. Precisely because of fixed
gender roles, with women focusing on the home and children while
men focused on work, Japanese housewives had remarkable authority
and autonomy within their designated realm. Wives and mothers now
have more options than their mothers and grandmothers did, but they
find themselves unprepared to cope with this new era of choice.
These gripping biographies poignantly illustrate the strengths and
the vulnerabilities of professional housewives and of families
facing social change and economic uncertainty in contemporary
Japan.
As the Japanese economy languished in the 1990s Japanese government
officials, business executives, and opinion leaders concluded that
their economic model had gone terribly wrong. They questioned the
very institutions that had been credited with Japan's past success:
a powerful bureaucracy guiding the economy, close
government-industry ties, "lifetime" employment, the main bank
system, and dense interfirm networks. Many of these leaders turned
to the U.S. model for lessons, urging the government to liberate
the economy and companies to sever long-term ties with workers,
banks, suppliers, and other firms.Despite popular perceptions to
the contrary, Japanese government and industry have in fact enacted
substantial reforms. Yet Japan never emulated the American model.
As government officials and industry leaders scrutinized their
options, they selected reforms to modify or reinforce preexisting
institutions rather than to abandon them. In Japan Remodeled,
Steven Vogel explains the nature and extent of these reforms and
why they were enacted.Vogel demonstrates how government and
industry have devised innovative solutions. The cumulative result
of many small adjustments is, he argues, an emerging Japan that has
a substantially redesigned economic model characterized by more
selectivity in business partnerships, more differentiation across
sectors and companies, and more openness to foreign players.
Over the past fifteen years, the United States, Western Europe, and
Japan have transformed the relationship between governments and
corporations. The changes are complex and the terms used to
describe them often obscure the reality. In Freer Markets, More
Rules, Steven K. Vogel dispenses with euphemisms and makes sense of
this recent transformation. In defiance of conventional wisdom,
Vogel contends that the deregulation revolution of the 1980s and
1990s never happened. The advanced industrial countries moved
toward liberalization or freer markets at the same time that they
imposed reregulation or more rules. Moreover, the countries
involved did not converge in regulatory practice but combined
liberalization and reregulation in markedly different ways. The
state itself, far more than private interest groups, drove the
process of regulatory reform. Thus, the story of deregulation is
one rich in paradox: a movement aimed at reducing regulation
increased it; a movement propelled by global forces reinforced
national differences; and a movement that purported to reduce state
power was led by the state itself. Vogel's astute and far-reaching
analysis compares deregulation in Britain and Japan, with special
attention to the telecommunication and financial services
industries. He also considers such important sectors as
broadcasting, transportation, and utilities in the United States,
France, and Germany.
Over the past fifteen years, the United States, Western Europe, and
Japan have transformed the relationship between governments and
corporations. The changes are complex and the terms used to
describe them often obscure the reality. In Freer Markets, More
Rules, Steven K. Vogel dispenses with euphemisms and makes sense of
this recent transformation. In defiance of conventional wisdom,
Vogel contends that the deregulation revolution of the 1980s and
1990s never happened. The advanced industrial countries moved
toward liberalization or freer markets at the same time that they
imposed reregulation or more rules. Moreover, the countries
involved did not converge in regulatory practice but combined
liberalization and reregulation in markedly different ways. The
state itself, far more than private interest groups, drove the
process of regulatory reform. Thus, the story of deregulation is
one rich in paradox: a movement aimed at reducing regulation
increased it; a movement propelled by global forces reinforced
national differences; and a movement that purported to reduce state
power was led by the state itself. Vogel's astute and far-reaching
analysis compares deregulation in Britain and Japan, with special
attention to the telecommunication and financial services
industries. He also considers such important sectors as
broadcasting, transportation, and utilities in the United States,
France, and Germany.
In 1958, Suzanne and Ezra Vogel embedded themselves in a Tokyo
suburban community, interviewing six middle-class families
regularly for a year. Their research led to Japan's New Middle
Class, a classic work on the sociology of Japan. Now, Suzanne Hall
Vogel's compelling sequel traces the evolution of Japanese society
over the ensuing decades through the lives of three of these
ordinary yet remarkable women and their daughters and
granddaughters. Vogel contends that the role of the professional
housewife constrained Japanese middle-class women in the postwar
era-and yet it empowered them as well. Precisely because of fixed
gender roles, with women focusing on the home and children while
men focused on work, Japanese housewives had remarkable authority
and autonomy within their designated realm. Wives and mothers now
have more options than their mothers and grandmothers did, but they
find themselves unprepared to cope with this new era of choice.
These gripping biographies poignantly illustrate the strengths and
the vulnerabilities of professional housewives and of families
facing social change and economic uncertainty in contemporary
Japan.
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