That's the problem with T.R. Reid's . A former Tokyo Bureau chief of the Washington Post, Reid set out to write a charming book explaining why it is that in Japan unlocked bikes go unstolen, kids are all science and math geniuses who seem to know logarithm tables by heart, and marriages are as durable as Mt. Fuji. Reid clearly loves Japan and fills his book with idiosyncratic tales of the pleasant everyday life he and his American family led in Tokyo. He marvels at the paucity of unwed mothers and broken homes, the low rates of drug use, vandalism and crime. All of this, he says, is testament to the fact that moral directives about obeying the law, honoring the family and respecting fellow members of the community still have potent force.How did Japan become so idyllic? Reid's answer--and the nub of the book--is Confucius, the Chinese scholar and teacher whose laws and code of conduct still influence Japanese society. Reid is convinced the next century will belong to Asia because the Confucian values he found in Japan--hard work, loyalty, honesty--are spread throughout the region.
Well, sure. It is true that such values have contributed to Asia's success at the end of the 20th century--just as the Protestant ethic helped propel the West in earlier centuries. But Reid's view of Japan as filled almost exclusively with industrious, socially considerate people overlooks a great deal. It especially neglects the profound changes that have swamped the country during the economic meltdown of the past several years. Of course, the kids still score well in math and science tests in school, but why is it that so few Japanese scientists become truly distinguished and fewer still win Nobel prizes? Part of the answer is the seniority system--one of the great legacies of Confucius--that causes Japanese scientists to waste their creative youth washing test tubes for bosses who are past their prime.
And those model Japanese families? Well, there are few unwed mothers because young women have abortions in staggering numbers--at heavy and largely ignored cost to their psyches. And when women do get married they often see little of their husbands, who spend evenings drinking beer with colleagues. During the prosperous 1980s women increasingly took low-paying part-time jobs to help finance their children's rising education fees. But in the '90s, companies fired these expendable women in an attempt to protect male lifetime employment. And then those overstaffed companies began collapsing because of their inability to reduce costs and increase productivity. Shell-shocked men, expecting an iron rice bowl, were tossed out onto the streets. Unemployment was less than 2% when Reid arrived in Tokyo to begin collecting tales of wondrous civility; it now stands at a record 4.8%. Reid notes that despite the hard economic times, people are not rioting. He also knows--but does not tell us--that Japanese are gloomy and depressed these days even if they do not outwardly show it. Pessimism has become a new national trait, one that can not be easily traced back to Confucius.
Nor is there much that Confucius--or Reid--would recognize in the pages of Robert Whiting's . Whiting describes a subculture filled with two-bit pimps, charming fraudsters and thoroughly corrupt politicians. So much for the orderly, crime-free Japan. Children may be safe when riding alone on the subway, but politicians demand suitcases filled with cash from corporations looking for contracts. In the murky underworld described by Whiting, Americans and Japanese exploit, use and abuse each other in order to make money and hold power. This is the dark side of the U.S.-Japan relationship that started with the black markets of the immediate postwar era. By the time the American military left Japan, writes Whiting, the new era of democracy and bilateral friendship being forged had a powerful, resilient underside. A pattern of illicit collusion had been established through an extraordinary mix of desperation and opportunism.Whiting is not offering sweeping insights into how Japan works. He did that with great flair in his excellent 1989 book about Japanese baseball, You Gotta Have Wa, one of the best and certainly most readable introductions to Japan. This time, Whiting provides fascinating snapshots of a Tokyo outsiders seldom see, a world the Japanese would prefer to keep behind the screen. He reminds us that Japan is a complex country with many different types of people--not all of them susceptible to the potent force of Confucius. And not all of them are easily explained, which is why the enigma of Japan continues.