The Political Economy of Japan: Cultural & Social Dynamics

This is the third and final volume of a series that constitutes a state-of-the-art analysis of Japan’s phenomenal economic rise, its society, and its place in contemporary world affairs. The papers in these volumes are future-orientated - they raise questions about where Japan is going as it approaches the twenty-first century and offer insights about future trends, prospects, and problems. The present volume adds another dimension to the study of Japan’s political economy: the introduction of some deeper, very slowly changing traits, more abstract and general propensities frequently described as group-orientatedness, diligence, vertical hierarchies, and so forth. These 12 essays by leading Japanese and American social scientists analyze certain neglected features of Japan’s economic performance, such as the influence of cultural factors, the role of the legal system, political power, the educational system, and, most of all, the characteristic behaviour of Japanese firms (the so-called J. Firm), with special emphasis on types of networks.