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Reviews
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Date of last review
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1
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4454
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August 10, 2004
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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Average Rating
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No recommendations
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None indicated
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4.0
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Description:
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Based on the most up-to-date sources, as well as extensive research and direct observation, Japan as Number One analyzes the island nation's development into one of the world's most effective industrial powers, in terms of not only economic productivity but also its ability to govern efficiently, to eduate its citizens, to control crime, to alleviate energy shortages, and to lessen pollution. Ezra Vogel employs criteria that America has traditionally used to measure success in his thoughtful demonstration of how and why Japanese institutions have coped far more effectively than their American counterparts.
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Affiliate link:
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Buy from Amazon
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Maciamo
Decommissioned ex-admin
Registered: July 2002
Location: Austrasia
Posts: 6652
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Review Date: August 10, 2004
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Would you recommend the product? No |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 4
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Pros:
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gives a summary of the best aspects of Japan as it was seen in the US in 1979
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Cons:
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outdated, exagerated, lots of factual mistakes
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The author, Harvard University Professor, starts the book carefully by warning the reader that he is going to concentrate on the positive aspects of Japan, and only what America should learn from it, and leave the rest aside. Unfortunately, even among the good, he made unforgiveable factual mistakes, which can be pointed out all the better with the benefit of hindsight - since the book was written in 1979.
Another problem is that Vogel compares a lot with the USA, but seems to know little about the situation in Europe, sometimes sounding like Japan is unique when it only copied some European systems (unacceptable from a Harvard professor !).
The book's only interest is an historical one; understanding how (some) Americans saw Japan in 1979, and laugh at their fears or foresight that Japan would take over the world by the end of the 20th century, or that the system could never go wrong - except that the Japanese economy and system collapsed in 1990 and has been ailing ever since, because justly it wasn't as Mr Vogel said.
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