The Japanese Economy

This is an economics textbook, not a journalistic report. It gives detailed and sophisticated explanations of how the Japanese economy functions. Often these differ from their American counterparts, especially in such areas as the financial markets and labor practices. The quality of Ito's explanations is such that this book was the gold standard for informed readers who wanted to get beyond the deluge of pop books written during the Bubble Economy (1985-1991: like Clyde Prestowit's "Trading Places" or James Fallow's "Looking at the Sun"). However--this book was published in 1991, at the very end of the Bubble, and it shows. The Japanese economy has changed in important ways since then. For example, the bad debt crisis and the "big bang" financial reforms have changed the financial system significantly. Because of when it was written, it could not address the ongoing shift of Japanese industry to factories in China, and in a broader context, the "de-industrialization" of Japan (much like what happened to the US when industry went to Japan in the 1970s and 1980s). Overall, this is the kind of book that a serious library absolutely needs, but which interested readers should borrow rather than buy. Unless, of course, you are a specialist in Japanese economic history--but then you (like me) already have it on your shelf. :)