The Enigma of Japanese Power
by Karel van Wolferen
This is a great example of somebody refusing to be befuddled, as a lot of people in Asia are, by this idea that, ‘We’re like this because our culture is like this,’ when in fact it’s the product of long-standing political arrangements and an attempt by power-holders to hang on to those arrangements because they suit them. I spent many years in Japan and Japan is very, very different from China. But the book is just a classic at describing the power structure as it really is, and not how the power holders would like you to think it is.
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“It’s a classic book from someone who has an uncompromising point to make, and Van Wolferen backs himself with the most prodigious research. He goes right back into the pre-Meiji period in Japan, and looks at how Japanese power structures were developed. The detail is stupefying in its thoroughness. “ Read more...
The best books on The Chinese Communist Party
Richard McGregor, Foreign Correspondent
