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Reimagining Japan: The Quest for a Future That Works Hardcover – July 12, 2011

by Brian Salsberg (Editor), Clay Chandler (Editor), Heang Chhor (Editor)

23 ratings

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REMINGINING JAPAN: Contributors to this volume include some of the world’s most brilliant thinkers from fields as diverse as business, politics, academia, science and technology, journalism and art and design.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis of March 2011, Japan has become a bigger part of the world’s consciousness than it has been for years. But Japan also is grappling with other problems that, over the long run, pose a much greater challenge to its national well-being than the devastation in Tohoku.... How can the country compete with a rising China? Cope with a fast-aging society? Deal with its enormous debt? Rediscover its entrepreneurial verve? Regain its position as a leader in technology and innovation? In Reimagining Japan, McKinsey & Company, the world’s top management consulting firm, asked more than 80 global leaders and experts to consider these questions. In essays brimming with insight, affection and occasional humor, the authors offer their assessments of Japan’s past, present and --most important -- future. What sets Reimagining Japan apart is the breadth and diversity of its contributors. They range from Fortune 500 CEOs to acclaimed writers (including three Pulitzer Prize winners) to a star videogame creator, a soccer coach, a school principal and a manga artist. There has not been such a comprehensive book about Japan in the past generation - and perhaps ever.

NOTABLE CONTRIBUTORS
Bernard Arnault, Ian Buruma, Gerald Curtis, John Chambers, Steven Covey, John Dower, Bill Emmott, Victor Fung, Carlos Ghosn, Pico Iyer, Bob McDonald, Stephen Roach, Masahiro Sakane, Masayoshi Son, Howard Schultz, Klaus Schwab, Bobby Valentine, Steve Van Andel, Ezra Vogel, Robert Whiting, Tadashi Yanai and more than 50 others.

Print length

464 pages
Language

English
Publisher

VIZ Media LLC
Publication date

July 12, 2011
Dimensions

6.2 x 1.1 x 9.1 inches
ISBN-10

142154086X
ISBN-13

978-1421540863
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Contributors to this volume include some of the world's most brilliant thinkers from fields as diverse as business, politics, academia, science and technology, journalism and art and design. Authors have been selected for their promience, but also for their knowledge of Japan and distinctiveness of their point of view. Many essays seek to identify, assess and prioritize Japan's major challenges for the next decade, while also suggesting solutions. But the collection also includes more literary, reflective essays, intended to provoke discussion and new ideas. This is a rare blend of truly global commentary and insight unlike anything ever published about Japan.

Copyright (c) 2011 McKinsey & Company

Product details

Publisher : VIZ Media LLC (July 12, 2011)
Language : English
Hardcover : 464 pages
ISBN-10 : 142154086X
ISBN-13 : 978-1421540863
Item Weight : 2.59 pounds
Dimensions : 6.2 x 1.1 x 9.1 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,900,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,305 in Economic Policy
- #4,355 in Economic Policy & Development (Books)
- #4,452 in Political Economy

Customer Reviews:
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Top reviews from the United States

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Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2011

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The main challenges presented, over and again in almost every piece:

- graying/aging population
- low birthrate
- hidebound political system and political actors
- hidebound business practices
- lackadaisical, unambitious, unadventurous, inward-looking youth
- messed up national finances
- inward looking, risk-averse culture
- over reliance on manufacturing sector as opposed to service and other
- energy issues
- rise of China

The main residual Japanese strengths presented that may help overcome some of the above:

- still a rich country
- highly educated people
- social discipline
- some scattered entrepreneurial and/or young innovator types of inspiring case histories'presented
- some corporations successfully getting more globalized, more diversity in the management suite, etc.
- soft power, culture stuff attractive to the world
- some Japanese athletes doing well in international competitions
- rural depopulation may restore ecology, boost eco-tourism
- China may be best future target market for high end Japanese brands and luxury goods
- economic revival may possibly derive from basically good existing technology base in health care, green energy, etc.
- elites in Japan starting to realize more openness and innovation needed

That's about it. Essays mostly written by conventional people, leaders of companies, professors, thinktankers, etc.
The boldest and most fun essay is Alex Kerr's "Japan After People".
Some obligatory 3/11 tsunami stuff hastily layered on and the seams are showing.
And definitely nowhere near enough attention to energy issues - apparently these visionary leadership types were just
as blindsided by the possible impending loss of up to 30% electrical capacity (nuke sector) as any Schmoe on the street.
Overall a book worth reading if you're into Japan.

But if you can read Japanese, I suggest you get hold of Eisuke Ishikawa's great book
"2050 nen ha Edo jidai" (Japan Year 2050: Return to the Edo Period) - bolder, wilder, and scarier than
anything in Reimagining Japan.

22 people found this helpful

Reimagining Japan and the World

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2011

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Reimagining Japan is a must read for those interested in learning about the opportunity facing Japan as it finds its own unique place in our ever changing world. The book was already on its way to the publisher at the time of the tragic events of 3-11 in Northern Japan, but the presses were halted and editors and contributors reviewed the content to address any new questions facing the nation. The format of the book is like a "college reader" with short essays from more than 80 thinkers from around the globe. The book is perfect for both the casual reader and the serious academic. The candid and often creative essays are from some of the great names in the study of Japan and Asia. Many of the arguments have been told again and again from the same contributors that I have followed for almost 40 years in my own study of Japan, but I was pleased to see some new and fresh names on the roster to lend a new perspective to some age old questions. What I found most amazing about the book is that the issues presented along with some possible solutions are not unique to Japan, but universal and applicable to nations around the globe.

2 people found this helpful

Good short essays from a list of notables

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2013

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In particular I liked Carlos Ghosn of Nissan who writes that in Japan change is attainable and lays out a roadmap for how he has done it. Less inspiring are essays that begin " the problem in Japan is" (founder or Uniqlo) ,

I used it as prep for a trip to Japan to sense what the new challenges are for the business environment.
Interestingly while in Japan, many told me how things are: but not one person mentioned the earthquake and tsunami until I asked.

Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2011

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I recently received my copy of Reimagining Japan and having read through most of it, I wanted to share with others what an amazing collection this is. I really love this book. The essays are very readable and each is either highly informative and/or delightfully entertaining.

I notice one of the Amazon reviewers as saying the book has "a limited variety of viewpoints." From my perspective this couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, the book's greatness, in my opinion, lies in its breadth of perspectives. I have never seen another book with so many well-known and interesting contributors all in one place.

A different review suggests that some of the book's themes are not "new." Indeed, this is true--some of the country's challenges around education, demographics, immigration and globalization are not new, and I don't think the objective of the book was to find "new challenges." What is however "fresh" about this collection is the fact that so many perspectives from around the world are collected in one place, in one beautiful and extremely well-written and researched volume.

In short, I think anyone with any interest in Japan--whether they are novices or experts--would thoroughly enjoy this book. I am not aware of any other book on this topic that comes even close to being so comprehensive and up to date.

3 people found this helpful

Top reviews from other countries

SBuckle

Wide variety of great articles that seem to point to similar conclusions

Reviewed in Canada on May 12, 2012

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McKinsey did a good job compiling a smorgasbord of articles that lend credibility to their goal of providing solutions for the problems Japan face today and in the future. The authors include CEOs from multinationals and Japanese nationals, foreign and domestic academics, writers and politicians. There a few throwaways that provide no insight (Alex Kerr) or simply promote their own business (Amway's CEO), but the vast majority of them quickly get to the point that Japan needs to change drastically, which isn't a secret.

The main problems Japan faces are a severely declining population combined with an aging society that will soon result in a huge gap in their workforce, a 20-year stall in their economy and the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the world (200:1), and a void of new leadership both in the political and the public sphere. Keep in mind, this onslaught is set in a country whose tradition is still strongly rooted in society, and while the Japanese have historically faced great physical change with world-beating acceptance (1923 Great Earthquake, Meiji industrialization, WWII occupation, March 2011 triple-disaster), societal and cultural change comes slower.

The authors coalesced around three general solutions with different ways of getting there.
#1: increase immigration and bring women into the workforce;
#2: reignite their economy by focusing globally rather than domestically and capitalize on new sectors like servicing and caring for the elderly, green technologies and the 'Made in Japan' quality of manufactured goods like fashion and furniture;
#3: re-think the concept of leadership by being less risk adverse, removing the need to build company consensus, becoming a meritocracy rather than rewarding based on Confucian principles of seniority, and importing new leadership models from around the world.

I agree with the solutions presented, but they all work in a top-down approach. This is my one criticism and I understand because more of the writers are the top, but support and buy-in happens on the ground. A top-down approach has traditionally worked in the past, but today is different. Japan's post-war industrial policies meant an economic miracle never seen before, but the bubble has burst and those policies no longer work in a matured, globalized economy. At that time, the people traded their civic voice for a strong social safety net, incredible growth and concepts like lifetime employment. Yet with those being severely threatened or non-existent today, society is less accepting of the top, evidenced by the revolving door of prime ministers and the end of the LDP's 60 year political support. We see a nascent protest culture stirring, be it the recent nuclear protests, the Okinawa-US base removals or even a general refusal by women to buy-in to the family structure if it means they have to pick a career or family. So as much as women need to become part of the workforce, the general populace needs to become part of the decision-making but in a way that pushes the needle forward rather than elongating action to build consensus.

Camberwick Green is Puppets

Need to imagine harder

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 31, 2012

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This book was in gestation before the 2011 earthquake and tsunami proved, among other things, that Japan has immense cultural strengths. Most of the many, very brief, articles here, by business leaders, academics and journalists, were rewritten to take recent events into account. But the basic thesis remains: Japan is a prosperous nation with a mostly contented population. However it is in relative economic decline; its population is ageing, and declining in numbers, rapidly; the country's industrial strength has been qualified in recent years by a lack of innovation, especially in electronics, while too many products are made for Japan only; too few of its people learn English, and too few study abroad; its politicians seem incapable of controlling the economy in the interests of renewed growth, while government spending and overall public debt remain high. So what is to be done? The majority view, as you'd expect from a McKinsey product, is 'globalisation'. In other words, Japan needs America-style higher pay for managers; tax breaks and easier access to venture capital for entrepreneurs; an education system more open to foreign students and exchange schemes, with English for all; a more positive global engagement by Japanese companies, with more non-Japanese employees up to and including board level; and mass immigration plus better career opportunities for women. There's a particularly depressing essay by the head of Starbucks, glorying in the Japanese take-up of American coffee culture (with, to be fair, a few local variations in cuisine). In other words, Japan should become just like everywhere else. No thanks.

There are a few, less coherent, minority views, emphasising Japan's cultural coherence and energy efficiency among other things, which taken together with the growth of consumer markets in China an d South Korea, and their interest in high quality Japanese goods, can suggest another way forward for what is still an effective industrial economy. In these accounts the declining population isn't much of an issue. But even these less pessimistic views spend too little time on what Japan is culturally, ethically and politically: its difference. To take two apparent extremes, Zen and J-Pop don't get much of a look in. If the term "Japan" is to have any meaning other than as a geographical expression, it is this cultural difference and the innovations to which it leads which needs to be nurtured, and furthered. Japan needs to be re-imagined as, precisely, Japan, and Tokyo as a suburb of Los Angeles just doesn't do the trick.

3 people found this helpful

Lahoti Ashish

Excellent Compilation ...

Reviewed in Japan on October 10, 2014

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Must read for all those who are intrested in knowing the socio-economical dynamics of Japan in cultural context with its roots in historic origin and their contemporary effects.

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