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Karel Van Wolferen

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The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation Paperback – June 10, 1990

by Karel Van Wolferen (Author)

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A full-scale examination of the inner workings of Japan's political and industrial system.

Print length

528 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date

June 10, 1990
Dimensions

5.31 x 1.2 x 7.98 inches
ISBN-10

0679728023
ISBN-13

978-0679728023
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Michael Green
38
Paperback
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Few Americans have examined carefully the nation whose economy and industry is bound up with their own, whose future will inescapably shape theirs--Japan, that is. Dutch journalist Karel van Wolferen does the job, and very well indeed, depicting a Japan alternately awed and disgusted by the world beyond its shores, governed by a puppet emperor in the service of the zaikaijin, a gerontocracy of businessmen who control the national economy, just as they have done for generations. Their hierarchy is reinforced by the fear that, as in 1945, hostile powers will not only overpower the Japanese economy but denature the Japanese people, introducing foreign concepts of democracy and even the specter of an "impure race." Although Van Wolferen balances his account by highlighting what he regards as positive Japanese traits, including thrift, respect for elders, industriousness, and self-control, The Enigma of Japanese Power remains a controversial text in the nation it assays to describe with discomforting accuracy.

From Publishers Weekly

"Here at last is a first-rate book by a Westerner on the obfuscations and realities of Japanese politics," praised PW , complimenting van Wolferen's "almost stupefying thoroughness."
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group; Reprint edition (June 10, 1990)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 528 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679728023
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679728023
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 1.2 x 7.98 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #343,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #207 in Political Economy
- #360 in Asian Politics
- #414 in Japanese History (Books)

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3.8 out of 5

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T. Hooper

Power Explained

Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2006

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Van Wolferen does an excellent job of exploring the basis of power in Japanese society. As you read the book, you'll learn that Japanese power is a very collective and amorphous thing. There is no one person or one group in charge of everything. There is no strong political leader, such as America has in its president. Power flows almost like water.

Another interesting thing that Van Wolferen covers in his book is that the way that Japanese people are today is not due to culture. The Japanese character has been molded by political decisions made in the past. It's interesting to see how he comes at this idea. Read the book and check it out for yourself.

8 people found this helpful

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A. Bond

Japanese Power - Political Observations

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2004

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.

15 people found this helpful

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Anonymo

Still a must read, over 20 years later

Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2010

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This is the most insightful book I have ever read on Japan, may be together with Murphy's The Weight of the Yen . Very comprehensive, thoroughly documented, and even more relevant after the change in government of August 2009, since a lot of the DPJ's goals are in line with Karel van Wolferen's comments. Ichiro Ozawa's Blueprint for a New Japan: The Rethinking of a Nation has largely borrowed from Enigma.

4 people found this helpful

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Nathan Adrian Hagen

An Outsider's View of the Surface of Japan

Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2002

When I first read this book, I have to admit that I was impressed with its depth of coverage and how the ideas presented in the book make sense as a whole. A few months after reading it, I went to Japan and lived there for a year and a half, my understanding of the culture and language steadily improving the longer I stayed. While talking to Japanese and constantly thinking about the culture and how people there view their surroundings and the world as a whole, the ideas from this book were almost always in my thoughts. I also read a long review (50~100 pages!) of the book by a well-known Japanese professor of political science, and I have to say that he was spot-on with his review (I only wish I could remember his name...): _The Enigma of Japanese Power_ is a book written by an outsider (as Wolferen proudly claims himself to be) whose criticisms of Japan amount largely to a yearning that it become a western country and not what it is -- a Japanese country.
For example, he criticizes the Japanese educational system as producing a compliant population and generation after generation of students exhausted and brain-washed by the famously intense studying in junior high and high schools. What he fails to do, however, is to find out how the Japanese feel about the system. And if you look into the subject, you find that many Japanese very much enjoyed their experience in school (that is, compared with American students, a much greater number say they enjoyed the experience) despite the intense pressure. One gets the impression from Wolferen that despite the _appearance_ of excellent school performance, in reality the schools produce a poorly educated populace. Only someone who is unfamiliar with the many examples of cultural excellence and genius in Japan can present Japanese society in such a light.
And this is where Wolferen's outsider-status really becomes a problem. He doesn't speak or read Japanese, and so remains unaware of the depth of Japanese culture; as a foreigner there, all he sees is the surface. His complaints about the structure of Japanese society are familiar enough to anyone who has been a part of the society of foreigners living in Japan. When he sees television commercials, he sees how short are the sound-bytes and how childish are the programs. But after I saw the same garbage TV programs and then came home to the US, I saw exactly the same garbage. When he hears Japanese pop music, he thinks it sounds all the same and that it reflects a lack of creativity and individuality. This is only natural if you can't understand the words: try listening to any pop music in a language you don't understand -- it's all going to sound basically the same and becomes dull quickly. And, again, is the US any better? I don't have Wolferen's confidence in proclaiming that, say, Japan's pop groups "Morning Musume" and "SMAP" are any worse than, say, "Spice Girls" and "Backstreet Boys". Every country has elements in its popular culture to be embarassed about.
So, what would I say to someone who wanted to understand Japanese culture? Unfortunately, I don't have a simple answer to that; the books I would recommend present pieces of Japanese society with a humility that attempts to understand a different way of thinking rather than an arrogance that assumes something must be wrong. For example: "Japanese Lessons" by Gail Benjamin presents the perspective of a thoughtful American woman encountering the difficulty of introducing her children to elementary school in Japan. Another example is "Forces of Order" by David Bayley; he is an American expert on police affairs and spent a year in Japan studying the Japanese approach to law enforcement. "Nihongo: In Defence of Japanese" by Roy Andrew Miller is a book which defends the Japanese language against the incessant attacks from Western writers (regarding its absurdly contorted structure, use of too many letters that take too long to learn, etc.) and show how these features instead reflect something important to Japanese society, a richness that is hidden from many who never go far enough to become fluent in the language, and are important assets to he language.
The most valuable contribution of _Enigma_, and which is the reason why the book still sits on my bookshelf, is that it is the best example I've ever read of the dangers of superficiality in interpreting another culture. He makes you feel like the Japanese are a people very different from you or I -- aliens if you will. But the truth is that they are ordinary people just like us, with our exact same worries and desires.

45 people found this helpful

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Reizo

Cheapest version but didn't regret it / Compré la versión más barata pero no me arrepiento

Reviewed in Mexico on January 22, 2021

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I bought it in Amazon Mexico. The book is yellowish because of its date (My copy was one of the first verions) but the pages are really well kept. Maybe original owner read it just once or never. I heard about this book by Kira Sensei, an spanish influencer about Japanese Lifestyle and how people have enhanced japanese culture to romantic levels. This book -he says- makes you clear your head and to think about Japanese culture as it is, or it was (Late 80's to Mid 90's) without any makeup. Costed me 100 MXN pesos in 2021 instead 530 MXN on newer versions. Maybe if it was in a public library I wouldn't buy, but it worth it. Google translate this into spanish if you're interested in this review. Thanks.

So.b.it

アメリカ大学の教科書になっています。

Reviewed in Japan on June 25, 2005

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　この本はアメリカの大学の日本文化の授業で必ず教科書になっています。それだけ、典型的で、なおかつ特殊な文化ということなのでしょうか？
　これを読んでいると、その通り『日本は生きズらいのよ』と思うのですが、じゃあどうしたらいいというのだ！と叫びたくなります！北朝鮮の国民だって自分の国の悪いところに気づいていると思うけれども、何かできることがあるの？と、いうのと似たような、とてもどうしようもない気分に襲われてしまいます。もっと言うなら、通信簿を目の前にして、悪いところを一つ一つ確認させられる感じがしました。『おちつきがない』とかの先生のコメントまで、みんなの前で確認させられる感じ！
　欧米人の言うことは解かるけれども、どうしようもできなくて悲しいです。

28 people found this helpful

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アトニ

日本権力構造の謎

Reviewed in Japan on October 27, 2011

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日本権力構造の謎の英語版です。
最近流行りの「日本中枢の崩壊」みたいな本です。ただ、その考察対象はもう少し広く、良くがんばって書いたなあと
思わせる本です。
外国人なのにえらい。
東京大学法学部と官僚機構をちゃんと分析した本は少ないので一読をお勧めします。

11 people found this helpful

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