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Book Reviews on...

The Enigma of Japanese Power by Karel van Wolferen
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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.

Recommendations from our site

“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

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