Analyzing relations amidst the European Community's growing unity and Japan's ever more dynamic economy, this book compares the processes, means, ends, successes and failures of European and Japanese industrial, trade and foreign policies. Nester has also written "Japan and the Third World".

Japan’s decision to attack the United States in 1941 is widely regarded as irrational to the point of suicidal. How could Japan hope to survive a war with, much less defeat, an enemy possessing an invulnerable homeland and an industrial base 10 times that of Japan? The Pacific War was one that Japan was always going to lose, so how does one explain Tokyo’s decision? Did the Japanese recognize the odds against them? Did they have a concept of victory, or at least of avoiding defeat? Or did the Japanese prefer a lost war to an unacceptable peace? Dr. Jeffrey Record takes a fresh look at Japan’s decision for war, and concludes that it was dictated by Japanese pride and the threatened economic destruction of Japan by the United States. He believes that Japanese aggression in East Asia was the root cause of the Pacific War, but argues that the road to war in 1941 was built on American as well as Japanese miscalculations and that both sides suffered from cultural ignorance and racial arrogance. Record finds that the Americans underestimated the role of fear and honor in Japanese calculations and overestimated the effectiveness of economic sanctions as a deterrent to war, whereas the Japanese underestimated the cohesion and resolve of an aroused American society and overestimated their own martial prowess as a means of defeating U.S. material superiority. He believes that the failure of deterrence was mutual, and that the descent of the United States and Japan into war contains lessons of great and continuing relevance to American foreign policy and defense decision-makers.

A study of the history of Japanese involvement and investment in Europe from the early part of this century to the present day. The main focus of the analysis centres on the auto industry consumer electronics and banking, whilst the different reactions to Japanese investment in Europe and the United States is also considered.

The Regional Handbooks of Economic Development series provides accessible overviews of countries within their larger domestic and international contexts, focusing on the relations among regions as they meet the challenges of the twenty first century. The series allows the non-specialist student to explore a wide range of complex factors-social and political as well as economic-that affect the growth of developing regions in Asia, Europe, and South America. Each Handbook provides an overview chapter discussing the region's economic conditions within an historical and political context, as well as 20 or more chapter-length essays written by recognized experts, which analyze the key issues affecting a region's economy: its population, natural resources, foreign trade, labor problems, and economic inequalities, and other vital factors. In addition, the volumes offer useful support materials, including a series of appendices that include a detailed chronology of events in the region, a glossary of terms, biographical entries on key personalities, an annotated bibliography of further reading, and a comprehensive analytical index.

In the name of peace, international cooperation, democracy, trade and human rights, the struggle for power is underway between the United States, Russia and China. This struggle is motivated by the natural clash of national interests, an almost preordained process in the contemporary state system. The struggle for power has been the dynamic element of history, and it is likely to be in the future. International war(s) may or may not ensue between the three major powers, but their relations will remain competitive, and at times quite hostile.

`For years Jon Woronoff has been telling us that far from having devised some miraculous solution to the problems of capitalism, Japan remains vulnerable to crisis. For years he was either patronised or ignored by purveyors of the myth of the `Japanese miracle'. Now, however, the economic `bubble' has well and truly burst, the `miracle' looks more and more tarnished and Woronoff has the grim satisfaction of being able to say `I told you so.' - John Crump, University of York Even while Japan's supporters and apologists boasted of the 'miracle' economy, it was developing weaknesses and flaws which have undermined it. Growth is slowing, the labour force is aging and youngsters lack the old work ethic. Manufacturing is dwindling while inefficient services, distribution and agriculture fester. There are good companies, but many more mediocre ones, and even the best make slim profits. Meanwhile people are tired of long work hours and little leisure, high prices for virtually everything, inadequate housing, amenities and welfare, and a quality of life that is a poor reward for their sacrifices. This adds up to a crisis for many Japanese companies, individuals and society as a whole. It is a crisis that has been spreading rapidly since the collapse of the 'bubble' of the 1980s. And there is little hope that another 'miracle' can overcome the problems and put the economy back on track. More radical change is needed, the sort of change that is most unlikely to occur in Japan. This predicament is well known to the Japanese. But it is inadequately reflected in books for foreigners. That is why Jon Woronoff has written The Japanese Economic Crisis . Again he reveals the problems and failures, the facts and realities that others still miss but are indispensable if you want to understand the true situation.

Approximately three million Japanese died in a conflict that raged for years over much of the globe, from Hawaii to India, Alaska to Australia, causing death and suffering to untold millions in China, southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, as well as pain and anguish to families of soldiers and civilians around the world. Yet how much do we know of Japan's war?In a sweeping panorama, Haruko Taya and Theodore Cook take us from the Japanese attacks on China in the 1930s to the Japanese home front during the devastating raids on Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, offering the first glimpses of how this violent conflict affected the lives of ordinary Japanese people.'Oral History of a compellingly high order.' Kirkus Reviews'This book seeks out the true feelings of the wartime generation [and] illuminates the contradictions between official views of the war and living testimony.' Yomiuri Shimbun

This book explores humanity's most persistent and tragic problem by answering some crucial questions including: How is military power created and asserted? What are weapons of mass destruction and what is the likelihood of them being used? What are the source, methods, and results of terrorism and counterterrorism?

Throughout its long history, Japan had no concept of what we call “religion.” There was no corresponding Japanese word, nor anything close to its meaning. But when American warships appeared off the coast of Japan in 1853 and forced the Japanese government to sign treaties demanding, among other things, freedom of religion, the country had to contend with this Western idea. In this book, Jason Ananda Josephson reveals how Japanese officials invented religion in Japan and traces the sweeping intellectual, legal, and cultural changes that followed. More than a tale of oppression or hegemony, Josephson’s account demonstrates that the process of articulating religion offered the Japanese state a valuable opportunity. In addition to carving out space for belief in Christianity and certain forms of Buddhism, Japanese officials excluded Shinto from the category. Instead, they enshrined it as a national ideology while relegating the popular practices of indigenous shamans and female mediums to the category of “superstitions”—and thus beyond the sphere of tolerance. Josephson argues that the invention of religion in Japan was a politically charged, boundary-drawing exercise that not only extensively reclassified the inherited materials of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shinto to lasting effect, but also reshaped, in subtle but significant ways, our own formulation of the concept of religion today. This ambitious and wide-ranging book contributes an important perspective to broader debates on the nature of religion, the secular, science, and superstition.

This book presents an up-to-date, scholarly analysis of the foreign and development policy dilemmas facing Europe today. It will be essential reading for students of development policy, external relations and international affairs.