Customer Reviews

The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It is amazing that somebody who were not raised in our culture could see in such a considerable depth how Japanese culture and its system are operating. Mr. van Wolferen does have such a gift to have done this. A lot of people in my country see him as being highly critical of our culture, however, being as a Japanese myself, I believe that we could learn from him how we are, when measured by different value system. More importantly, we at least should know how much our innocently, or almost unconsciously, making divisions between "US" and "GAIJIN" could cause funny feelings outside of Japan. Cultures have an effect of brainwashing. When you are completely sunk in there since you were born, you tend not to see how much of your personality and behavior have been shaped by your culture. It is only when you encounter other cultures to compare that you could see this and doubt a little about your assumptions, bliefs, and judgements. I do agree with Mr. Wolferen that our country have the heritage from our previous period in large part; Feudalism. It is in every aspects of our society, much more than we think. I am not opposed to our current system though, I do appreciate my country for providing me with a safe place to grow up, and for giving me an equal opportunity to be educated enough to think and write like I am doing right now. However, what makes me sad is that today our country seems to be lost, not knowing where we should go. I believe what makes our society confusing in these days is the fact that the majority of Japanese, especially older people, are not aware of how much our thinking and conducts are influenced by feudalistic traditions, and are requiring our country to be democratic at the same time. Our goals and our conducts do not mix well. Mr. Wolferen's book is insightful for us to realize this conflicts, and I hope we have a courage to evaluate what he is saying, before labeling him as "GAIJIN" and assuming "GAIJIN can not unders! tand our way of doing the things," which is not true. Maturity comes from the strength to take critics and to accept diversities in opinions.

I have lived in Japan for 10 years, and yes, much of the book is quite accurate in its explanation of "the system" in Japan (it is likely the best attempt so far). Yes, this book is a must read for anyone who wishes to gain further insight into how Japan really works.

But as with any text that attempts to be all encompassing in scope, it does have its flaws. My biggest problem with the book is how Van Wolferen sometimes uses isolated, rare or extreme incidents to explain his theories. Sure, most of the events listed are well documented (his footnotes alone take up about 57 pages!), but do they represent a complete scenario? A person reading this book with little direct knowledge of Japan beforehand may come away believing a more extreme scenario.

I will give you one example: the documentation showing how Dentsu (Japan's largest advertising agency) is an all powerful entity which determines the quality of Japan's daily entertainment, and intimidates large firms and the media by producing corporate scandals and hushing them up again. He provides us with a couple of fascinating examples of how Dentsu was able to apply pressure for the media not to report damaging information about their clients, but is it really safe to assume that this takes place on a daily or even yearly basis? Looking closely at Van Wolferen's sources, the most recent event or incident that he lists with regard to Dentsu is from 1971! If we are to believe that this is an ongoing practice, I would like to see more recent and consistent documentation.

I am not saying that there is no corruption going on at Dentsu, or that they do not wield enormous power, but he leverages old isolated incidents to prove his point and make things sound as though they are more severe than they really are. I can go on with other examples, but I just wanted to let everyone know that as with anything, please read this excellent book with a grain of salt.

I have given this book five stars because I can not give it six. Karel Van Wolferen's "The Enigma of Japanese Power" is a brilliant, if often infuriating and depressing, analysis of the way power is wielded in Japanese society. Having lived in Japan for six years now and having heard every conceivable interpretation of this culture by both westerners and Japanese, I have found nothing that even remotely approximates the accuracy of Van Wolferen's insights. I have seen the "the System" he describes at work, as it crushes the spirits of the good men and women of this country, demoralizing them until they meekly accept their "proper place." Van Wolferen's cool, clinical dissection of the central myths of Japanese society was so uncomfortably close to the mark that "the System" could not afford to let it go unchallenged. In fact, shortly after its publication a Japanese diplomat approached Clyde Prestowitz, an American expert on Japan, and through the use of an oblique threat, tried to enlist him in an effort to discredit Van Wolferen. For anyone who is interested in learning about how Japan really works this book is an excellent place to start.

Enigma deserves all the praise you may read in this forum. Karl van Wolferen brings his extensive experience and keen insight to blow way the perfumed-scented, silk-screen interpretations offered up by the Reischauers, the Jansens and the Vogels. I have lived in Japan for seven years, have studied her language, her people, her history and culture and truly no explanation of Japan even approaches this work.

It is interesting that while Japanese propagandists and apologists have always attacked revisionist works on Japan (and their authors), they have largely ignored Enigma. Witness the controversy surrounding Changfs Rape of Nanking and, earlier, the total ruination visited upon Berkowitz. I suppose they have no effective counters to the arguments put forth by van Wolferen and hope that the book will just go way.

For anyone who is interested in learning about how Japan really works this book is an excellent place to start. For those who dont know the people of Japan, it could lend itself to a misinterpretation: most Japanese that I know are acutely aware of the failings in their society and are none too happy with them. However, they see little opportunity for change. As Patrick Smith has observed, theirs is a life of desire with out hope. It is the system that is the problem.

I have to admit that it's difficult to dislike a man who is so despised by the academic community. Van Wolferen, a native of a small country (Netherlands) who never even attended college, wrote a book that changed the way people think about Japan. In this way, it's similar to "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword" by Ruth Benedict; long, rambling, flawed, far from perfect, but a book that had a huge impact on Western perceptions of Japan. That is why you should read this book. It's a piece of history, a work that inaugurated, for better or for worse, a new era in books on Japan. People in the ivory tower can't stand the Dutchman, but they will never reach as large an audience as he has.

Karel van Wolferen's The Enigma of Japanese Power presents to us a picture of the Japanese government as a corrupt and manipulative "System" in which individuals have few rights and are often ignored. What distinguishes this book from others in the area is the explanation given for how this came to be. Whereas Ruth Benedict and Chie Nakane use cultural and structural approaches to Japanese society, respectively, Van Wolferen views it from a political perspective. This allows The Enigma and Japanese Power to remain relevant even after the "bubble burst" of the Japanese economy.
One of Van Wolferen's central topics in this book is that not everything is as it appears in Japan - certainly not a new idea to the field. However, the political viewpoint he takes is refreshing. For example, he claims that there are two "Confusing Factors" (5) about Japan that cause problems when dealing with other countries. The first fiction is that Japan has a responsible central government. Note the word "responsible," since Japan clearly has a central government. Instead of a transparent government in which people are responsible for their decisions, Van Wolferen tells us that there is no one individual or group that has complete control over the country. Rather, power is divided among many ministries, politicians, and bureaucrats. At the start of the second chapter he tells us that, of course Japan has laws and regulations, several political parties, and unions workers can join. However, he then also explains that just because these institutions exist with our Western names attached to them does not mean they function in the same manner.
For example, Van Wolferen describes politics in Japan as a "rigged one party system" (28), even though there are quite a few opposition parties. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which is neither liberal nor democratic, is primarily "a vote-getting machine" (30) and a policy-oriented organization dead last. Through gerrymandering the voting districts to favor rural areas - where the LDP has always had strong support -, buying votes, and pork-barrel politics (making promises to help a city by funneling money to it if a certain politician is elected for the area) the LDP has managed to virtually monopolize seats in the Diet. Due to this tremendous amount of power, policy debates and outcries against LDP corruption "are performances that are democratically reassuring but with not the slightest influence on developments in the countries affairs" (30). Due to this overwhelming power, the people are virtually at the LDP's mercy.
The other fiction about Japan that Van Wolferen thinks causes problems is that Japan has a free-market economy. He quotes Chalmers Johnson in describing Japan and other Asian countries as "capitalist developmental states" (6). In this system the economy of a country depends on a good relationship between industry and bureaucrats. In other words, the industry "advises" the bureaucracy about what they should do and the bureaucrats make policies that reflect those "suggestions." For example, Van Wolferen points out the banning of oral contraceptives in order to "[prevent] any decline in the lucrative abortion industry" (53) as an example of this. The incentives for bureaucrats are top positions in big business after retirement (known in Japan as amakudari - descent from heaven).
Van Wolferen argues that the ability to say or present one thing and take a completely different course of action - and that no one seems to care - is due to a lack of any universal truths or beliefs held by the Japanese. He says that because the political elites were able to pick and choose what aspects of Buddhism and Confucianism were adopted by society, they were able to weed out anything that detracted from their power. In this way, religion came to be a tool the government used to project an image that those in power were beyond the law, yet were still benevolent rulers. However, in Western thought, the government is seen as a protector of the people, answerable to the same laws as the commoners. In other words, Van Wolferen states that the lack of "truths, rules principals or morals that always apply, no matter what the circumstances" (9) enables the Japanese to accept seemingly hypocritical viewpoints and stances without flinching.
I enjoyed reading The Enigma of Japanese Power. It is popular Nihonjinron at its peak - easily accessible, entertaining, and does not stray too far from the generally held views of Japan. Some would argue that this third fact detracts from the book, but I do not agree. By looking at Japan through a political viewpoint, rather than a cultural one like countless others, Van Wolferen is able to garner more validity. Reducing everything done differently in Japan to culture or tradition gets us nowhere. Instead, by looking at the situation differently we can see that there are specific reasons why the Japanese are they way they are. It is important to realize, however, that this political view has its limitations as well, which I believe Van Wolferen makes clear that he knows.

I spent a significant part of my childhood growing up in Tokyo, and I developed my own intuitive understanding of the japanese system... But when I read this book, (not having been exposed to the real details of politics, etc, as a young'un), It really crystallized my intuitions into a coherent picture, and I found myself saying "Yeah! That's right -- everything I thought about that was true, but this makes it all so clear..."

The most amazing realization though, (and I agree with it), is that so many aspects of what Japanese people are told is their "culture," have been manufactured slowly through the years by the bureaucracy, for their own ends... Even if you think you know Japan, you should read this book.

Published just as the infamous Japanese 'bubble' economy was set to burst - and from which, more than ten years down the road, Japan has yet to recover - van Wolferen's work remains a classic in the field. The Dutch journalist spent more than thirty years reporting from Japan. Though the tenor of Japan's relationship with the outside world has changed considerably in the intervening years, much of what van Wolferen noted remains true.
Following publication, van Wolferen's speaking engagements dried up or were suddenly canceled, and he was tagged with the 'Japan basher' moniker. More than anything, van Wolferen had broken the taboo of uttering what all knew to be, on various levels, the truth about how Japan's political and bureaucratic culture functions.
In places the book is dense. The general reader can skip to relevant sections. They include pieces on education, the elusive Japanese state, the all-pervasive bureaucracy, the middle class, ritual in society, intimidation, the press, and others. Very persuasive.

If you are interested in Japan (and given its history and place in the world today, you should be) this book is essential reading. When this book was published it was attacked by the Japanese "power structure" as "Japan bashing". 5 years later what he wrote in this book was accepted as "true" and he was a best selling writer IN JAPAN.

To summarize the key point: power in Japan tends towards absolute power unfettered by laws or "western ideals" of truth and morality. As a self-defense mechanism, Japanese culture tries to surround any real power with layers of custom and protocol which prevent real power from actually being wielded. The result is that there is a huge gap between what is "said" vs. what is "done"; between what is "offically" the truth vs. what is actually happening; between who is in office vs. who actually makes the decisions.

BTW: Japan is not the only country in the world where this is true, take a look at Algeria since independence and you will find a country where power and appearance are equally seperate.

2nd point: most of the rest of the world does not understand Japan and Japanese don't tend to understand the rest of the world. In my opinion, Japan has the wierdest culture of all the major powers (Europe, U.S., China, and Japan). However, this book goes a LONG way towards solving at least one part of the equation: understanding the way Japan really works.

If you have ever wondered why the Japanese Army didn't cooporate with the Japanese Navy during World War II, this book tells you why. If you ever wondered why trade deals with Japan during the 1980s had no effect on Japanese policy, this book tells you why. If you ever wondered why Japanese prime ministers seem to have no power to get things done in Japan, this book tells you why.

This book has my highest recomendation.

I read Mr. Van Wolferen's book after having lived in Japan for five years, and it opened my eyes more than all of my accumulated experience living in the mysterious "land of the rising sun." His expose demystified Japan and helped me to much better understand how Japan operates as a nation and why. All of his assertions are logically argued and supported with well-researched evidence, all of which is painstakingly footnoted. I was struck by how incredibly pervasive and vise-like the control of virtually every aspect of Japanese society is, and how dangerously ignorant the Western world is of "the System." Rather than a "Japan-bashing" polemic, it is a warning to the Japanese people, as well as to the world, that their leadership's power structure is a danger to all and is ill-equipped to lead the nation into the 21st century. Considering Japan's far-reaching economic influence worldwide, I see this book as required reading for everyone.