How could Japan surpass the U.S. in so many industries so quickly? That oft asked question receives an unusually thorough and thoughtful examination in Trading Places: How We Allowed Japan to Take the Lead (Basic Books; $19.95). Written by Clyde V. Prestowitz Jr., the counselor to the Secretary of Commerce for Japan Affairs between 1983 and 1986 and now a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, this "epic tale of reversal," as the author calls it, starts with Japan's 1945 surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri and chronicles its four-decade push toward economic victory.
Prestowitz describes exactly how Japan...
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