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Authors: Karel van Wolferen

Tags: #Japan - Economic Policy - 1945-1989, #Japan - Politics and Government - 1945, #Japan, #Political Culture - Japan, #Political Culture, #Business & Economics, #International, #General, #Political Science, #International Relations, #Public Policy, #Economic Policy, #Social Science, #Anthropology, #Cultural, #Political culture—Japan, #Japan—Politics and government—1945–, #Japan—Economic policy—1945–

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  1. In the World But Not of It
    1. A good recent example is George Packard, ‘The Coming U.S.–Japan Crisis’, in
      Foreign Affairs
      , Winter 1987–8.

    2. Nihon Keizai Shimbun
      [Dealing with the Policies of the New Conservative Party], 25 December 1961.

    3. Uemura Kogoro, ‘Shin hoshuto no seisaku ni nozomu’,
      Yomiuri Shinbun
      , 4 November 1955.

    4. Yoshi Tsurumi,
      Los Angeles Times
      , 25 January 1988.

    5. This is understood by some Japanese intellectuals. See, for example, Kuroda Katsuhiro in
      Japan National Press Club Bulletin
      , 10 January 1988; translated as ‘Don’t preach to South Korea’,
      Japan Times
      , 7 February 1988.

    6. Asahi Shimbun
      , 21 April 1986.

    7. Personal communication from a mutual friend.

    8. See also the comments of George Murakami, the veteran weekly commentator on the Japanese economy,
      Asahi Evening News
      , 27 April 1987.

    9. For the difficulties involved and the consequent methods of Japanese bargaining, see Michael Blaker,
      Japanese International Negotiating Style
      , Columbia University Press, 1977, pp. 14–17.

    10. Ibid., p. 224.

    11. Kenzo Uchida,
      Japan Times
      , 19 June 1987.

    12. Chalmers Johnson, ‘Japanese-Soviet relations in the early Gorbachev era’,
      Asian Survey
      , November 1987, pp. 545–60.

    13. Donald C. Hellmann,
      Japanese Foreign Policy and Domestic Politics
      , University of California Press, 1969; and Donald A. Hellmann, ‘Foreign policy a la LDP’, in H. Murakami and J. Hirschmeier (eds),
      Politics and Economics in Contemporary Japan
      , Kodansha International, 1983, pp. 97–8.

    14. Hellmann, ‘Foreign policy’, op. cit. (n. 13), p. 103.

    15. Clyde Prestowitz,
      Trading Places
      , Basic Books, 1988.

    16. Ivan P. Hall, ‘Stop making excuses for Japan’s insularity’,
      Wall Street Journal
      , 6 July 1987.

    17. The fact that an imported car has its steering wheel on the wrong side for Japan is part of its snob-appeal value; it marks the car as foreign. Some imported cars like Mercedes have a lower resale value if they have the steering wheel on the right side. BMW experimented with the import of two right-hand-drive models and found that there was little interest in them.

    18. T. J. Pempel, ‘The tar baby target: “reform” of the Japanese bureaucracy’, in R. E. Ward and Y. Sakamoto (eds.),
      Democratising Japan
      , University of Hawaii Press, 1987, p. 174.

    19. Asahi Shimbun
      interview, English version in
      Asahi Evening News
      , 3 June 1987.

    20. ‘Tensei jingo’ column,
      Asahi Shimbun
      , date unknown.

    21. Kato Shuichi, ‘Taisho democracy as the pre-stage for Japanese militarism’, in B. Silberman and H. D. Harootunian (eds.),
      Japan in Crisis
      , Princeton University Press, 1974, p. 234.

    22. Several months after Tokyo had been informed that a nuclear bomb was being developed, the Imperial Army initiated its own programme for the development of an atomic bomb under the supervision of Dr Nishina Yoshio. According to one documentary prepared by NHK, General Tojo Hideki conveyed his opinion to Colonel Kawashima Toranosuke that the war might be decided with atomic weapons.

    23. For an articulate summing up of the sentiments and ideas involved and a warning against using them as justification for Japan’s war effort, see Onuma Yasuaki, ‘“Bunmei no sabaki” “shosha no sabaki” o koete’ [Beyond the logic of ‘civilisation justice’ and ‘victors’ justice’],
      Chuo Koron
      , August 1983, pp. 162–89.

    24. For a representative instance of the public being asked to make sacrifices for the sake of better relations with other countries, see Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
      Diplomatic Blue Book
      , Summer 1985.

    25. Among the numerous instances of this kind, see the conclusions of the former Japanese chairman of the trilateral commission: Watanabe Takeshi, Seiron Column,
      Sankei Shimbun
      , reprinted in
      Japan Times
      , 27 April 1987.

Glossary of Japanese Words
Amakudari
post-retirement employment of bureaucrats in big business.
Burakumin
former outcasts.
Dango
rigging tenders for construction projects.
Fujinkai
women’s circles.
Gaiatsu
pressure from outside.
Gekokujo
‘those below overcoming those above’; used for lower-ranking officials taking charge, for insubordination or mass uprisings.
Gikan
technical career officials.
Gundan
lit., army corps; used to describe Tanaka Kakuei’s group of politicians.
Habatsu
political clique.
Honne
real intentions or motives, true meaning.
Ie
household, House.
Ijime
bullying in schools.
Ikki
peasant uprisings.
Jiageya
land sharks.
Jimukan
administrative career officials.
Jinmyaku
network of special informal relations.
Juku
cramming school.
Kami
shinto divinity.
Keibatsu
family groupings through marriage.
Keiretsu
a group of corporations tied together by interlocking directorates and mutual shareholding.
Kidotai
riot police.
Kisha kurabu
reporters’ club.
Koban
police box.
Koenkai
support group for a politician, vote-collectors’ organisation.
Kogai
environmental pollution.
Kokutai
‘national essence’.
Kone
connections.
Kyoiku mama
education mother.
Minzoku
people, race.
Mondai
problem.
Naimusho
the disbanded, once very powerful Home Ministry.
Nihonjinron
theory of Japaneseness.
Nokyo
agricultural co-operative organisation.
Omiai
formal first meeting of the parties to an arranged marriage.
Paipu
lit., ‘pipe’; the access politicians have to bureaucrats in connection with pork-barrel projects.
Sangyo Hokokukai
pre-war and wartime ‘patriotic industrial associations’ organising workers for the sake of increased production.
Sarakin
loan sharks.
Sarariiman
salaried worker.
Sempai
the senior party, helper, adviser in a hierarchical relationship.
Shafu
‘culture’ that gives a company its identity.
Shingikai
deliberation council.
Shinko shukyo
newly formed religion.
Shunto
spring labour offensive.
Sokaiya
stockholders’ meeting fixer, extortionist.
Tatemae
pretence, formal explanation, official motives.
Tenko
apostasy.
Wa
harmony, peace.
Yakuza
gangster.
Zaibatsu
pre-war corporate groupings around a holding company.
Zaikai
the world of big business and finance.
Zoku
‘tribe’, group of politicians specially concerned with a particular policy area.
A Note About the Author

Karel van Wolferen left Netherlands at the age of eighteen and has lived in Japan for most of the past twenty-five years. For some fifteen years he has been East Asia correspondent for the Dutch newspaper
NRC Handelsblad
, covering several countries, from India to Korea. In 1987 he received the highest Dutch award for journalism for his coverage of the Philippine revolution. He writes on Japan aided by a vast amount of personal knowledge, gained through teaching and involvement in business activities before he became a full-time journalist. His great interest in political theory has resulted in articles for scholarly magazines such as
Foreign Affairs
, and a study of student revolutionaries of the sixties.
The Enigma of Japanese Power
was written between September 1986 and March 1988 in a cabin in the mountains of northern Ibaragi, about three hours from Tokyo.

BOOK: The Enigma of Japanese Power
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