One book by, and another about, Friedrich List.įriedrich List! For at least five years I'd been scanning used-book stores in Japan and America looking for just these books, having had no luck in English-language libraries. Bodice-rippers from the Harlequin series.
In row upon row sat a jumble of books that had nothing in common except that they were published in English. I walked to the back of the narrow store and for the thousandth time felt both intrigued and embarrassed by the consequences of the worldwide spread of the English language. On the way back to the station I saw a bookstore sign advertising Western-language books for sale.
Professor Iwao Nakatani, the man I went to Hitotsubashi to meet, was one of the most respected members of this group, and I spent the afternoon listening to his argument while, through the window I watched petals drifting down. Starting in 1990 a number of Japanese businessmen and scholars began publicly saying the same thing, suggesting that Japan's business system might be based on premises different from those that prevailed in the West. Through the 1980s a number of foreign observers challenged this assumption, saying that Japan's economy might not necessarily become more like America's with the passing years. antitrust laws would forbid-the difference should be considered temporary, until Japan caught up. Where Japan's economy differed from the American model-for instance, in close alliances between corporations which U.S. Not only should Japanese industries try to catch up with America's lead in technology and production but also the nation should evolve toward a standard of economic maturity set by the United States. Since the end of the Second World War, Japanese diplomats and businessmen have acted as if the American economy should be the model for Japan's own industrial growth. I had gone to Hitotsubashi to interview a professor who was making waves. In surveys huge majorities of students say that they study "never" or "hardly at all" during their university careers. Students glided along on their bicycles, looking as if they were enjoying the one stress-free moment of their lives. The road from the station to the main campus is lined with cherry trees, and my feet stirred up little puffs of white petals. Like several other Japanese universities, Hitotsubashi is almost heartbreaking in its cuteness. IN Japan in the springtime of 1992 a trip to Hitotsubashi University, famous for its economics and business faculties, brought me unexpected good luck.
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