vii, 328 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 22 cm
Contents
Acknowledgements -- 1. The mists of concealment -- 2. Beyond the bubble -- 3. Asia's siren song -- 4. Money politics -- 5. The Nanny State -- 6. The wages of war -- 7. The odd couple -- 8. Bad girls and mummies' boys -- 9. A nicer new nationalism -- Notes -- Index
Summary
In the 1990s Japan swung swiftly and suddenly from being an unstoppable economic colossus to a creaky house of cards on the brink of collapse. Once cautious banks and bureaucrats fell in with cowboy businessmen and gangsters. The political system crumpled along with many of the real-life myths and cultural certitudes built up around Japan and its economic miracle over the past half century. The Japanese themselves have been rattled by a series of natural disasters and terrorist attacks that spread a deep pessimism through society. The author lived in Japan through this dramatic period, and tells the tale not through faceless corporations, but with stories of elite mandarins, scheming politicians, ultra-nationalist thugs, and the new generation of young men and women who are transforming the nation's workplaces and bedrooms
