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The article presents a review of a book entitled "Japan's Network Economy: Structure, Persistence, and Change," James R. Lincoln and Michael L. Gerlach.

The article reviews the book "Remade in America: Transplanting and Transforming Japanese Management Systems," edited by Jeffrey K. Liker, W. Mark Fruin and Paul S. Adler.

The article reviews the book "Japanese Business: Cultural Perspectives," edited by Subhash Durlabhji and Norton E. Marks.

The article reviews the book "The American Samurai: Blending American and Japanese Managerial Practices," by Jon P. Alston.

This article presents a review of the book "The False Promise of the Japanese Miracle," by S. Prakash Sethi, Nobuaki Namiki, and Carl L. Swanson.

What ever happened to Japan? In the early 1990s, it lost its status as an economic juggernaut and found itself a beleaguered nation in its worst recession since World War II. Two new books help explain why the country has been struggling: "Japan: A Reinterpretation," by Patrick Smith, and "Inside the Kaisha: Demystifying Japanese Business Behavior," by Noboru Yoshimura and Philip Anderson. As reviewer Robert Crawford points out, the West has had a false image of Japan since the early days of the Cold War. In order to prop up the island nation as a bulwark of anticommunism, U.S. academics presented the country as a land of harmony, hard work, and long-term vision. The truth, says Crawford, is that the harmony was artificial--more the outcome of a restrictive system than of real trust and common purpose. And long-term vision was little more than a fiction designed to impress outsiders. The books demonstrate that Japan achieved its prominence by playing follow the leader. In other words, Japanese companies, or kaisha, copied the West's high-growth industries and caught up with the United States more through competitiveness and efficiency than through innovation. How can Japan rebound? It may be that effective change can be led only by Japan's younger generation. Japanese students are likely to demand a higher standard of living than their parents had. The growth of a consumer culture, Crawford says, could encourage individuals to develop a healthier sense of self--which, in turn, could help the country spawn the innovative culture needed to succeed in a fast changing global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Much has been made of what American business can learn from Japan's manufacturing practices, but its service sector also has lessons to teach. E. Barry Keehn reviews two recent books showing how the Tsutsumi family defined consumerism in Japan: The Brothers: The Hidden World of Japan's Richest Family, by Lesley Downer, and Architects of Affluence: The Tsutsumi Family and the Seibu-Saison Enterprises in Twentieth-Century Japan, by Thomas R.H. Havens. The vast holdings of the Tsutsumis make them dominant players in many markets. As Keehn tells us, in one 45-degree wedge of northwestern Tokyo, residents may ride the trains of Seibu Railways to Seibu condominiums built on Seibu land and shop in Seibu stores. The dynasty began in 1915, when patriarch Yasujiro developed a middleclass resort near the favorite retreat of Japan's imperial household. He concentrated on luring Tokyo's literati, formulating the blend of status and middlemarket affordability that remains a key to marketing success in Japan. Next--as Tokyo residents fled their war-ravaged city--he made his key real estate and railway acquisitions. After their father's death in 1964, brothers Seiji and Yoshiaki divided the empire and developed their own styles. Seiji, a former student radical, has a genius for business and for courting cultural leaders. Believing that this is an "age of selling information and aesthetics," he created Parco, his hugely successful fashion emporium. The even more successful Yoshiaki lacks Seiji's love of ideas. In fact, no ideas other than his own are welcome. "In my company," he has said, "we don't need people any brighter than I." But his companies have controlled up to one-sixth of all land in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a review of the book "The Business Cycle in Japan," ("Nihon no Keiki Junkan") by Shozaburo Fujino.

The article reviews the book "The New Community Firm: Employment, Governance, and Management Reform in Japan," by Takeshi Inagami and D. Hugh Whittaker.

The article reviews the book "Remade in America: Transplanting & Transforming Japanese Management Systems," edited by Jeffrey K. Liker, W. Mark Fruin and Paul S. Adler.