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Cartels of the Minds: Japan's Intellectual Closed Shop

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Like Karel Van Wolferen's the Enigma of Japanese Power, and more recently Alex Kerr's brilliant Dogs and Demons, Cartels of the Mind should be viewed not only for lessons in how foreigners can or cannot relate to Japan, but to understand how the Japanese people are being damaged by the subtle, yet brutal systematic mind control of Japan's Ministry of Education.
This is in response to the review that says:"Speaking of "closedness", there must be much more opportunities in Japan than now, only if any foreign people speak and write Japanese fluently. This must be a certain barrier, but it can be easily overcome if they are humble enough to learn Japanese language, the very essence of Japanese culture."
I have lived in Japan for ten years, am fluent in the language and must state that learning Japanese may have gained me a few half-hearted compliments, but far from being a road in, most foreigners are even discouraged from displaying their abilities. It has helped me in social situations and with academic pursuits, but it has never helped make inroads towards career advancement, or helped penetrate the obstacles that Mr. Hall discusses in his book. He's right on target!

Basically, I see this work as trying to destroy the barrier that the academic world, both in the U.S. and Japan, has errected to shield many of the patterns of behavior within Japanese culture that are less than "fair." Moreover, it is at it's best an attempt to look into a subject that too few academics are willing to because of the sensitive nature of the issues involved. Hall is one of the few academics who does not equate being critical of Japan with racism, Japan bashing or political incorrectness. The book also has a great strength in that it covers areas that are often overlooked in the tradition of Japanology. Law and Journalism are seldom mentioned in surveys of the tensions between Japan and America and academics are almost ignored as a matter of course. Hall opens up the possibility that the U.S. is not simply pushing our values on other cultures and expecting them to do things the "American way." I think it is a very important book becasue it points out the desparity between the treatment of Japanese residing and working in professions here in the U.S. and Amercians in professional positions in Japan. This alone makes Hall's book very valuable because it is a truth that many ignore completely. I would highly recomend this book to anyone who is looking for a more accurate picture of the current situation facing Americans seeking a carrer in Japan.

Thank you very much, Bryce King II

I was one of the commentators who was approached by thepublisher in 1997 to write a pre-publication recommendation for thebook's jacket. I was a delighted to oblige and this is the unabridged version of what I wrote: "All talk of globalization to the contrary, the Japanese mind remains systematically closed to Western attempts at intellectual engagement. As Ivan Hall demonstrates over and over again in this important book, Japan's exquisitely aloof and unWestern intelligentsia is evidently more than happy to perpetuate this state of affairs." More than two years later, I would say that I am even more aware of the book's importance today than I was then. A Harvard-educated historian who boasts more than three decades' experience dealing with Japan as a cultural diplomat, as a correspondent, and, most recently, as a professor, Ivan Hall is unsurpassed among American scholars in his understanding of Japan's intellectual closed shop. Even more important, in a field where corporate funding has acted increasingly powerfully to frustrate the spirit of free inquiry that is the hallmark of all true Western scholarship, Hall is virtually alone in the courage and independence of mind he brings to the epochal mysteries of how the Japanese politico-economic system truly works. He thus stands in particularly piquant contrast to those among his American academic peers who would apologize for the aspects of Japan criticized in this book. If anything, Hall has erred on the side of gentleness in his criticisms. My own interpretation of the true rationale for Japan's highly exclusionary "press club" system, for instance, is considerably harsher than Hall's. One thing should be emphasized: for all the talk of Japan's economic "collapse" in recent years, in the ways that matter (or at least should matter) to American policy makers, Japan is stronger than ever these days. It has already surpassed the United States in net exports (that is exports netted for imported content), for instance, as well as in the absolute size of its manufacturing sector. Most important of all, by dint of its soaring current account surpluses, it now towers over the United States in its ability to project economic power abroad. It is a tribute to the profoundly unWestern way that information flows in Japan that Westerners ever believed that the perennially underestimated Japanese economy had collapsed in the 1990s. --Eamonn Fingleton, author of In Praise of Hard Industries: Why Manufacturing, Not the Information Economy, Is the Key to Future Prosperity

An excellent book. It covers mainly three professions, the legal profession, journalism and academia. It describes how in these three professions, Japan tries to give the impression that it is an open society, where in reality, it is a closed society.

Personally, I am in the medical profession, and in my personal contact with the medical world in that society, the impression I have is that that same Cartels of the mind exist. I was very surprised to learn that while many of the latest drugs are readily available in Singapore, once the licensing authorities in the major advanced countries have given the go ahead, such as approval by the FDA in the USA, in Japan, these new drugs are not available maybe until some years later, Viagra being the notable exception. In the case of Viagra, it seems that within six months of its approval in the USA by the FDA, the Japaense Ministry of Health approved of its use in that country already, (because the old men in power there need it?)

Many years back, in the 80s, the scandal of HIV tainted Factor VIII in Japan was due to exactly the same kind of protection mechanism. Factor VIII is a product required for the treatment of Hemophiliac. Before the discovery of the method for inactivating the HIV virus, quite a number of Hemophiliacs became infected with that virus. In the mid 80s, the Americans learnt how to inactivate the HIV virus and the Americans produced Factor VIII became relatively safe. It was not allowed to be imported into Japan citing tests were required to prove its safety for use by the Japanese. Result? A large number of Japanese hemophiliacs became infected by that virus.

The result of these protectionistic measures might be good for the Japanese firms, but not good for the Japanese citizens and consumers.

This book by Ivan Hall is timely in illustrating how the intellectual world in Japan managed to protect itself from too much outside influence using the three professions: legal, journalism and academia, to illustrate that point. I am sure if Mr. Ivan Hall should decide to look into the medical world, the same situation applies.

Hey, wake up and smell the coffee! Japan's academic
establishment is indeed an insular and hostile environment.
All foreign devils who intrude into this realm must be wary
for even if they are invited (by contract) they are invading
the inner sanctum of Nihonjinron nationalism and will be
looked upon as suspect or treated with not so subtle mockery
at every turn. In l994 the totalitarian bureaucrats in
the Ministry of Education (indoctrination and mind control)
fired all foreign professors, including those who presumed
that they had lifetime tenure. Contracts are meaningless.
Imagine the Federal government of the United States suddenly
firing all foreign educators because of 'budget considerations'.
There would be a firestorm of protest from the ACLU to the
Young Republicans Club. But in Japan no one raised even a
whimper of protest as the devil gaijin were shown the door!
Even those gaijin who had shown a humble attempt at social harmony and had mastered the Japanese language were fired.
Educators like Hall had a private audience with then US ambassador
Walter Mondale. They voiced their grievances. He made a mild
protest to the Japanese government and then the matter was
quietly forgotten!! Don't waste your time trying to build an
academic career in Japan. The educational authorities here will
play you along but in the end they'll screw you while howling
gleefully. I wish to God the American government had acted
in a similar fashion in l994 and retaliated by firing most
Japanese instructors in America, but such is not the American
way. Hell, we even train terrorist pilots how to fly jumbo jets.
In Japan, 'Uncle Sam' is often looked upon as 'Uncle Sap' and
America's emphasis on academic freedom and individual rights are
viewed with disgust or contempt. How do I know all of these
things? I am a former university instructor at Japan's most
elite private college, Waseda University. I well understand
Hall's lament on closed minds and intellectual cartels. I was
treated with only slightly veiled contempt by the 'honorable
sensei' at Waseda. Sadly, one
can only fear that Japan will slip into a nationalistic mood
once more, akin to that of the l930's with dire results for
all of Asia and the United States. No, not war. Just having to
endure these bores. More enlightened Japanese
academics are seeking teaching opportunities outside of Japan!
Hall has done a favor to any younger academic contemplating
a teaching career in Japan! Forget it! Stay home and go to
work in a bank.

It's hard to find fault in a book that speaks the truth so eloquently..and so courageously. Unfortunately, Japan doesn't have enough people of Ivan Hall's character - people willing to take a stand and raise awareness of what is really happening underneath the tatemae the Japanese have so carefully constructed. Gutless Americans are not a rare breed in Japan, and the fact that many have bought into the fact that the treatment of foreigners as "others" is just shou ga nai (a fact of life) continues to reinforce to the Japanese that there is something intuitively correct about Nihonjinron (the sense of the Japanese as being a special people by blood and the Japanese language a language only masterable by pure Japanese). And gutless American businessmen and longterm residents aren't the only ones to blame; Japanologists and Japanese academics in the U.S. sell-out in equally large numbers, their motives being that they don't want to risk hurting their Japanese colleagues' feelings or chance losing research money or grants. Spineless.

In Cartels, Ivan Hall puts his professional career and reputation on the line for a noble purpose. There is no doubt that he was aware of the negative publicity he would receive in Japan for exposing this deeply engrained social corruption, but his work is larger than him. It was written for all of the foreigners who have had enough of Japan's insular ideology. For those of us who pour our time, energy, and heart into Japan as residents and who deserve nothing less than acknowledgment and treatment as similar people. Ivan Hall hits the nail on the head when he exposes Japanese kokusaika (internationalization) as an attempt not to open its culture up to people of other cultures, but to instead emphasize differences and block access to Japanese culture. Learn English, speak English to people who appear to be Westerners, and you have achieved kokusaika. Allowing Westerners to move to Japan, learn Japanese fluently, and behave like us, though, is unthinkable. Hogwash.

Halfway through this book I was enjoying Hall's fists-flying attack on the insularity of Japanese organizations. By the end of the book, however, I found myself increasingly forced into the camp of cultural apologists he continually warns against throughout. While Hall is no doubt right to be righteously indignant about a lot of what he describes, his entirely unquestioned faith in American-style universalism as the only proper alternative ultimately comes across as arrogant and, um... all too American in its assumption that open access to other people's cultures is an absolute right. Even if you despise its effects, the 'particularity' espoused by certain mainstream strands of Japanese culture does represent a distinct alternative to American-style universalism, and one that has proven itself robust and alluring to large numbers of people. I would love to read a study that critiques this 'particularity' discourse more on its own terms, rather than attacking it from the outside with a different ideology - one in some ways equally dogmatic and difference-averse. Reading this as an American, in English, Hall's writing feels all too smug about the rightness of the American way of doing things, for all people everywhere.

All in all reading the book was like watching one of those polemical documentaries that exhaustively argue one side of an issue - at first you are wrapped up in the damning evidence and thrill of wrongs being exposed, but after the same point is made over and over and over in the same way, you gradually grow skeptical about whether the situation could really be so simple. It would have made a fine magazine feature, but at this length I was hoping for more.

After living in Japan for four years in the mid 90s and working towards fluency in the language, I have come to see how one could develop strong pro and con views towards Japan. After decades of variations of "the Japan way" which has at times been at odds with Western patterns of education, business etc. has softened and even opened in the 1990s.

But by focusing on crucial areas in society -- especially fundumentals including education and law, Hall highlights the closedness on these and other domains usually ignored by the press. Those who have not lived in the country will gain insight into the systems outlined but readers who have lived /worked in Japan will be better able to capture the emotion of the book. I can see many muttering "that is what I've wanted to say!"

Still, from my perspective, Hall is overly pessimistic that the "cartels of the mind" will continue indefinately. The current of change running through Japan is gaining speed, and Hall should of acknowledged this development as well.

In this book, Hall tries to undermine what he revealingly called `Japan's intellectual closed shop': the attack on Japanese sovereignty is framed in the language of attacks on trade unions. In terms familiar to those who oppose EMU and global capital, Hall denounces Japan's `reactionary nationalism and emotional antiforeignism'. The book supports US capital's attempt to impose on Japan what Hall calls its `rigid laissez-faire trade ideology', pressing Japan to dismantle its import and export controls.

For instance, Hall deplores as `nationalistic utilitarianism' a Ministry of Education official's statement that, "The Japanese education system has long been designed for the purpose of training manpower for the Japanese society alone." This seems much better than Britain's policy for higher education, of selling education services to foreign would-be elites so that later they might remember us and be nice to us.

Japan is right to defend its sovereignty against `free market' intrusions, right to oppose globalisation and liberalisation. It has the right to make its own decisions about how to shape its institutions, without foreign interference. The US Government is worried that other Asian nations (particularly Malaysia just now) are adopting Japan's successful strategy. Japan's Government intervenes and protects key industries, it maintains controls on labour and capital, and it has strong barriers against US hegemony in law, journalism, academia and science. It strongly supports technical and vocational education and Research and Development, especially in the new information technology industries.

The US Government is worried not so much by Japan's present problems as by its earlier success in becoming the world's second economic power. Consequently, Clinton has committed the US Government to maintaining present troop levels in East Asia until at least 2015. Japan is building up its military to make a greater `international contribution' to peacekeeping operations and regional security, aspiring to a seat on the UN Security Council. The US Government has the brass to say that Japan's relations with other nations make it unworthy of this!

First, some context that might explain my disappointment with this book. I am a strategic planner (engineer and MBA education) for a Fortune 100 manufacturer who was looking for some insight into Japan that may be of business value. Based on the subject matter and reviews, I knew this might be a stretch for this book. But I was swayed by the good press it received in Business Week, and I am not against experimenting. While Hall presents plenty of details that would be new to most people, his overall conclusions regarding the Japanese culture have been common knowledge for years. And there is little insight as to how one can deal with the environment described, which is where I expected to find the value. To save you time, the book can be summed up in two phrases: "In Japan, the nail that sticks up gets hammered down." (I don't recall who first said this.), and "Japan does not play according to the rules considered fair by the Western world." Unless you are looking for some specific data regarding law, the media, or education in Japan, you will not learn much more by reading the 185 pages.