japansociety
Japan Book Review
Volume 2 No. 6 December 2007
Issue No. 12

Japan-UK Reviews

Editor: Sean Curtin

Contents

Managing Editor: Clare Barclay
n our final issue of 2007, we have some excellent reviews and previewsof the latest Japan-related books hot off the printing press. Our firstarticle looks at a major new work by Sir Max Hastings on the dramatic
final year that lead to Japan's wartime defeat. We also feature three recently
published Japanese language books which offer insights into the Koizumi
years and the US-Japan relationship. New reviewer William Farr offers his
verdict on a Japanese hot springs book, there is also another riveting reader'sreview plus lots more reviews and previews. Finally, Japan Book Review says
a tearful farewell to our Managing Editor Clare Barclay. Clare has worked onJapan Book Review for over two years and we could not have produced it
without her. Many thanks on the readers' behalf and we will miss you.

I

Sean Curtin
New reviews: www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews.html
Archive reviews: http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews_archive.html(1) Nemesis: The Battle for Japan,
1944-45(2) Nichi-Bei Dohmei-toiu
Riarizumu(3) Koizumi Kantei Hiroku(4) Kozo Kaikaku No Shinjitsu:
Takenaka Heizo Daijin Nisshi(5) Getting Wet: Adventures in theJapanese Bath
(6) Divorce in Japan: Family,
Gender, and the State, 1600-2000(7) Reader's comments: Under theSun(8) North Korea in the 21st Century,
An interpretative guide(9) Preview: Outsourcing andHuman Resource Management(10) Preview: Tokyo Look Book

Japan Book Review
Nemesis: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45
by Max Hastings
Harper Press, 2007, 673 pages including index, notes and bibliography, £25.
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

Sir Max Hastings, who was a former editor of The Daily Telegraph and The
Evening Standard, is Britain's ablest war historian. This book which covers thedeath and destruction which accompanied the end of the war with Japan follows
his account in Armageddon of the defeat of Nazi Germany.
This is not a dry description of battle strategy and tactics but a lively accountof the various campaigns from Burma to Okinawa which led up to Japan's
defeat. The author includes many 'human interest' stories which show what thebattles were like to the participants on both the allied and Japanese sides.
Heroism, cowardice, suffering, appalling injuries and cruel deaths all have theirplaces in this often heart rending and moving book.
Hastings is frank about the defects and flawed personalities of many thepoliticians, admirals and generals involved. One of the few to emerge as both agood general and as a fine human being is General Slim who led British forces
to victory in Burma. On the American side he praises in particular Admiraljapansociety

Japan Book Review: December 2007

Nimitz. The flaws in the characters of both Mountbatten and
MacArthur are exposed. I was well aware of the egotism andarrogance of MacArthur, but I had not realised that in thePhilippines in March 1942 he accepted a gift of $500,000 fromthe Philippine treasury. Hastings says of him: "MacArthur
displayed a taste for fantasy quite unsuited to a fieldcommander, together with ambition close to megalomania."
MacArthur had no liking for the British and did not want
British participation in the defeat of Japan. His views
coincided with those of many other American leaders. The
Americans would do nothing to assist the British, French or
Dutch to recover their former possessions in South East Asia,
tended to be contemptuous of the British fighting in Burmaand expect the British simply to do as the Americans told
them. Sir Esler Dening, as political adviser to Mountbatten
towards the end of the war, once observed acidly: "I often
think that we might on important occasions remind ourselvesthat we are not yet the 49th of the United States."
Hastings does not flinch from describing in some detail theatrocities which Japanese forces perpetrated in occupied areasof China and the contempt which Japanese soldiers so often
showed the Chinese. These make the Nanking incident seem apreliminary to the horrors to come. But other occupied
territories suffered equal cruelties. The people of Manila, forexample, were barbarously treated by the Japanese when
American forces retook the city. The Japanese maltreatment ofprisoners of war is well known but some additional gruesome
details are included in Hastings' account. But alas cruelty
begets cruelty. After Japanese soldiers immolated themselves,
if possible with one or more of their captors, it can hardly be
surprising that allied forces took few prisoners. No pity was
shown by General Curtis LeMay who planned and executed
the US fire and high explosive bombing raids on Japanesecities which caused more death and destruction than the two
atomic bombs. Hastings gives graphic accounts of how
Japanese families suffered as a result of these raids and is
careful to record instances of Japanese kindness as well as
cruelty. He has pity for the young men who were brainwashedinto the kamikaze suicide attacks. He notes that while these
did cause serious casualties in the American fleet they madeno difference to the outcome of the war.
Hastings gives graphic and absorbing accounts of battles
such as those for Leyte, Iwojima and Okinawa. He tells us of
the suicidal mission of the mammoth Japanese battleship
Yamato. His account of the campaign in Burma brings out thehorrors and the loneliness of the struggle. (It is a pity that hemakes no mention of Louis Allen's epic account of the Burma
campaign in Burma: The Longest War 1941-45.)
Hastings is illuminating in his account of the failures andinadequacies of Chinese resistance to the Japanese occupiers.
He is highly critical of Chiang Kai Shek and the nationalists,
but he also reminds us that the Chinese Communists weremore interested in winning power in China than in fighting
the Japanese. His account of the Soviet part in the final defeatof Japan sheds light not only on the American attitude
towards Soviet involvement but also on the fighting in
Manchuria and the loot which the Soviets garnered.
Many readers will inevitably be engrossed by what
Hastings has to say about the rationale for the dropping of theatomic bombs and their impact on the thinking of Japaneseleaders. Hastings concludes: "Considering the plight ofcivilians and captives, dying in thousands daily under

2

Japanese occupation, together with the casualties which
would have been incurred had the Soviets been provoked into
maintaining their advance across mainland China, almost any
scenario suggests the far more people of many nationalities
would have died in the course of even a few more weeks of
war than were killed by the atomic bombs."
The lack of realism and appreciation of intelligence among
Japanese military, naval and civilian leaders about what waspossible for Japan in mid-1945 seems incredible to us today. It
was not, of course, unknown in allied circles to doubt
intelligence; MacArthur was often prone to believe only what
he wanted to believe. But the Japanese leaders were far more
inclined to wishful thinking and ignoring facts. Slim said that"while Japanese commanders were physically brave men,many were also moral cowards." Certainly the way in which
for weeks and months after it should have been clear to any
intelligent man that Japan was defeated and that the longer
Japan waited the greater Japan and the rest of the world
would suffer, Japan's leaders dithered and delayed, unable totake the courageous decision to accept defeat. The allied
insistence on unconditional surrender was understandable
but probably unwise. In fact the Potsdam declaration did
contain words which clarified if they did not modify themeaning of unconditional surrender.
This book should be read by anyone who wants tounderstand the tragedies of the war against Japan. It also
ought to be read by Japanese historical revisionists who like
Japan's war leaders refuse to face unpalatable facts.

Nichi-Bei Domei-toiu Riarizumu(Emerging
Realism of theJapan-U.S.
Alliance)by Tomohito Shinoda,
Chikura Shobou, 2007, 274
pages including notes andindex, ISBN: 978-4-80510884-0 C3031
Review by Takahiro Miyao
Virtually no book has
been written by a Japanesescholar to offer a coherent
view on the history of the Japan-U.S. Alliance for the entire
post-war period, although there have been some edited books
including various views of multiple authors on this subject
matter. One major reason for this seems to be the lack of ananalytical framework, satisfactory from the Japanese
viewpoint, to be able to understand the main events andepisodes in Japan-U.S. relations throughout the post-war
period.
In this book, Professor Tomohito Shinoda provides such aframework by applying the concepts of "realism" (realistic
approach based on national power and security), "liberalism"(idealistic approach emphasizing international cooperation)and "constructivism" (analytical approach introducing theelements of ideals and ideologies). With this framework, hejapansociety Japan Book Review: December 2007

tries to analyze the entire post-war period of the Japan-U.S.
Alliance, from the occupation period to the present, during
which time the basic nature of the Alliance has been
undergoing fundamental change. As expected, the basic
change might be regard as "emerging realism," i.e., gradualchange from liberalism toward realism, as suggested by thebook title. What is interesting, however, is the timing andreasons for change, which Professor Shinoda spells out withhis analytical framework.

"Koizumi Kantei
Hiroku"(Confidential
Records of the
Office of Prime
Minister Koizumi),

In Chapter 3, "Change to the 'Reverse Course,'" Professor
Shinoda singles out the role of George Kenan at the U.S. State
Department in the late 1940s to push Japan toward more
realism, eventually leading to Japan's rearmament right after
the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. However, Japanesepolitical leaders, from Shigeru Yoshida down to Zenko
Suzuki, had been keeping their liberal stance for more than
two decades until Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone
voluntarily accepted realism in the Japan-U.S. Alliance.
Similarly, in Chapter 6, "Escape from Drifting Alliance," theimportance of the Armitage Report in 2000 is emphasized in
making a number of proposals reflecting the George W. Bushadministration's realistic stance toward the Japan-U.S.
Alliance, hopefully, to make it similar to the Britain-U.S.
relationship. However, it took Prime Minister Junichiro
Kozumi for Japan to accept the essence of the Armitage Report
actively and to take concrete steps for strengthening theAlliance in the aftermath of the 9/11 incident.

by Isao Iijima,

While Professor Shinoda's analysis successfully reveals thenature of the historical change in the Alliance in a clear andsimple way, its oversimplification is inevitable, as he himself
admits in the Introduction. For example, the realism that
Nakasone and Koizumi subscribed to was not necessarily
shared by a majority of the Japanese people, not even by amajority of the ruling coalition party members. Probably,
Professor Shinoda should have utilized the concept of"constructivism" in explaining more recent politicaldevelopments, rather than adopting simple dichotomy
between "realism" and "liberalism," in order to have a richer
and deeper understanding of the dynamism of Japanesepolitics, especially since the Koizumi era.
As mentioned in the Postscript, Professor Shinoda's work inthis book may be regarded as a counterargument to some of
the well-known studies by U.S. scholars on the Japan-U.S.
Alliance which are entirely based on the stance of "liberalism."
At any rate, this book should be considered a landmark for the
study of the Japan-U.S. Alliance in the post-war period, and asignificant contribution to our understanding of the basic
nature of the Alliance, which is currently under intense
review, at least, on the Japan side in the aftermath of thehistoric defeat of the pro-U.S. ruling coalition in the Lower
House in July 2007.
Takahiro Miyao is Professor and Head of the Japanese Institute of
Global Communications.
This review was produced in collaboration with the Global
Communications Platform and first published on the Platform:
http://www.glocom.org/

japansociety Japan Book Review: December 2007

Nihon Keizai Shimbunsha(Japan Economic Journal),
December 2006, 334 pages, 1800
yen

"Kozo Kaikaku No
Shinjitsu:
Takenaka Heizo
Daijin Nisshi"(Truth of
Structural
Reforms: Diary of
Minister Takenaka
Heizo),by Heizo Takenaka,
Nihon Keizai Shimbunsha, December 2006, 344 pages, 1800 yen
Reviews by By Fumiko Halloran
When Mr. Junichiro Koizumi was elected in April 2001 to
the presidency of the Liberal Democratic Party (and thus, inJapan's parliamentary system, prime minister) few politicians,
opinion leaders, journalists, and private citizens imagined that
he would lead the nation for five years and five months,
among the longest tenures in the post-war period. When hebecame the national leader, Japan's economic and financial
situation was so dire that there was fear abroad that Japanmight trigger a worldwide financial crisis.
During that period, however, Prime Minister Koizumi
launched reforms in the national budget system, special
public corporations, the postal savings and insurance system,and the medical insurance and national pension systems. By
the time he stepped down in September 2006, the national
budget system had been restructured, legislation to privatize
the highway public corporations and postal savings andinsurance system had passed as had legislation to reform the
medical insurance and national pension systems. Mr.
Koizumi's goal was to streamline the bloated bureaucracy thatwasted the taxpayer's money, to privatize nationally runorganizations as much as possible, to cut the national deficit,
and to reenergize the private sector, particularly the banking
system. Japan had suffered from a ten-year recession after thecollapse of the bubble economy.

3Premier Koizumi's success was achieved only after brutal
debate about his policies and acrimonious attacks on theprime minister and his team, particularly Dr .Heizo Takenaka,
an academic with a PhD in economics. Mr. Koizumi chose him
to be Minister of State for Economic & Fiscal Policy and to lay
out the framework of Japan's economic and financial recovery.
It was no wonder that the opposition to the reforms was fierce
since each reform would strip power from numerous interest
groups. Opponents ranged from retired senior government
officials who had enjoyed lucrative second careers in public
corporations to general construction companies that wereaccustomed to getting large scale highway and urban
development projects from politicians who brokered deals on
government financed projects in exchange for election
campaign contributions. Lobbying by business groups wasintense. Bureaucrats who had enjoyed powerful control overbudgets and legislation were dismayed to see their control
over policy taken over by the Office of the Prime Minister. At
every step of reform, senior bureaucrats resisted the changes,
even openly lobbying against the prime minister. In at least
one case, Mr. Koizumi, through Minister Nobuteru Ishihara of
the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation, fired
the president of the Japan Public Highway Corporation(Nihon Doro Kodan) for resisting reform.

Second, PM Koizumi set clear goals that the public could
understand and support. To achieve this goal, the Koizumi
team came up with a strategy for a public relations campaign,
including an electronic magazine, "Lion Heart," that drew theattention of more than one million viewers. Mr. Iijima writes
that the prime minister's office studied the different nature of
the media and divided it into the printed press, TV, and radio
journalism, inviting different sets of editors and reporters formeetings with the prime minister himself. Town meetings by
the prime minister and cabinet ministers were set up to havedirect conversation with the citizens.

Three months after Mr. Koizumi stepped down, two books
revealed in detail how these policy debates were conducted,
how the Koizumi cabinet dealt with opposition to reform, andabove all, the role politics played in efforts to bring aboutreform. These books are valuable primary sources for researchon the Koizumi years.

Both Mr. Iijima and Mr. Takenaka make it clear that thisadvisory council was the key player in the efforts for reform.
It was established by Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto andcontinued by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori but it came into fullfunction under PM Koizumi. The members included cabinet
ministers (finance; internal affairs; economy, trade &industry), the chief cabinet secretary, president of the Bank ofJapan, minister of state for economic and fiscal policy, andfour representatives from the private sector such as academics
and business leaders. During his reign, Prime Minister
Koizumi attended and chaired all 187 meetings.

Isao Iijima, PM Koizumi's chief of staff, wrote one. He wasin the center of domestic and foreign policy-making as Mr.
Koizumi's aide for 35 years. He was considered to be Mr.
Koizumi's alter ego.
Dr.Takenaka, the minister ofstate for economic and fiscal
policy, wrote the other. In
addition to that post, he waslater appointed to be Ministerof State for Financial Affairs
and finally as Minister ofInternal
Affairs&
Communications, to oversee
the entire structural reform. At
first, his position was a political
appointment but, in 2004, he ran in an election and waselected to the Upper House. Last September, he resigned fromparliament at the same time Prime Minister Koizumi stepped
down and immediately began to write this book based on thediary he kept during his tenure as a cabinet minister. He isback at Keio University as president of the university's Global
Security Institute and a frequent visitor to the UK.
Mr. Iijima begins his book with an explanation of PM
Koizumi's strategy to succeed in radical reform of thegovernment's structure. First, Mr. Koizumi could exercise
leadership because he was not a traditional Liberal
Democratic Party politician. He won the LDP presidential
election by ignoring factional games and appealed directly tothree million LDP members who reflected the public's desire
to see a change in politics. Indeed, throughout his tenure, PM
Koizumi continued to enjoy public support, from a high of
88% at the time of his winning the premiership to 62% at theend, according to Japan News Network of TBS TV Station.

4

PM Koizumi established the pattern of setting
comprehensive policy proposals without consulting his own
party, which resulted in a confrontation with the LDP Policy
Research Council (Jiminto Seimu Chosa-kai). Mr. Koizumi
authorized policy proposals by the Council on Economic &Fiscal Policy (Keizai Zaisei Shimon Kaigi), then made public
on the cabinet homepage the conference materials and theminutes three days after each meeting. Further, rebuttals by
ministries to specific proposals were also posted on the
homepage. This meant the public and the press had access not
only to the proposals but information on who supported andopposed each.

Mr. Iijima focused on recruiting reform-mindedbureaucrats to work for the prime minister and orchestrated
the political battle in getting legislation passed. Dr. Takenaka
laid out the framework and specific measures for reform inclose consultation with the prime minister. Their relationshipwent back more than ten years before Mr. Koizumi won thepremiership, when both were members of a study group that
discussed ways to get out of the collapsed bubble economy.
Dr. Takenaka argued against the traditional approach ofpumping public funds into large-scale projects intended to lift
the economy. He argued that not only was it wrong policy but
it was done because of the close relations among the LDP
politicians, business executives, and bureaucrats. That had tobe broken. Eliminating wasteful projects, reducing theissuance of national bonds, and privatizing public
corporations, as well as reducing subsidy to local
governments were their ultimate goals.
PM Koizumi's passion for structural reform has a long
history, starting in 1970's when he was parliamentary viceminister of the Ministry of Finance and the national deficit
was escalating. As Minister of Health and Welfare and thenMinister of Posts and Telecommunications in the 1990's, he
tried to restructure the flow of funds from postal savings,
postal insurance, and national pension into supplementarybudget but was not taken seriously. When he ran
unsuccessfully in the LDP presidential elections in 1995 and1998, his policy speeches focused on the same theme. In his
third attempt, in 2001, he again advocated an efficient, stronger
but smaller government to stop the hemorrhaging of public funds.

japansociety Japan Book Review: December 2007

Both books describe in detail the fierce opposition to thereforms, PM Koizumi's never changing convictions, and his
charisma that earned the loyalty of those who worked for him.
Dr. Takenaka was especially grateful that, each time he felt
criticism and personal attacks wearing him out, PM Koizumi
gave him encouraging words. At the same time, with shrewd
political skill, Minister Takenaka reached out to key LDP
leaders and senior bureaucrats whenever a major proposal
came up, to do a thorough "nemawashi" (prior briefing andnegotiation). He seemed to have abundant patience toweather criticism and to find common ground with hispolitical enemies.
Mr. Iijima was born in 1945, Dr. Takenaka was born in 1951,
and they are products of Japan's post-war period. But theircareers were quite different. Mr. Iijima served only Mr.
Koizumi during his entire career as "hishokan" (secretary; acombination of executive and legislative aide). Dr. Takenaka, agraduate of Hitotsubashi University, was with the Japan
Development Bank, was a senior analyst at a think-tankaffiliated with the Ministry of Finance, and taught at Harvard,
Osaka University, and Keio University. Mr. Iijima wasthoroughly familiar with the legislative process and party
politics while Dr. Takenaka was a novice in politics. He founda wide gap between politicians and policy experts and saw ashortage of policy experts. Despite the differences inexperience, the two shared PM Koizumi's passion for his goals
and worked hard to achieve them.
There may be a valid criticism that both books are attempts
to justify the Koizumi regime. In that sense, every book
written by a politician is suspect. There is already criticism
that, while the reforms may have saved Japan from aworsening economic and financial crisis, it created a widening
gap between winners and losers that may threaten the safety
net and the social fabric of Japan. What is striking about thetwo books, however, is that they articulate the Koizumi team's
sense of the crisis of a nation in deep trouble, their ideas andsolutions, their strategies and framework of policies
connected with each other, and the political tactics for dealing
with reform. Taken together, these books certainly present a
vision for the future governing of Japan.
A different version of this review first appeared on the National
Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) Japan-U.S. Discussion Forum andis reproduced with permission of the author. The original review canbe found here:
http://www.nbr.org/foraui/message.aspx?LID=5&pg=3&MID=27329

Getting Wet Adventures
inthe Japanese Bathby Eric Talmadge
Kodansha
EuropeLtd(Japan), 2006, 272 pages(Hardback),
ISBN:
9784770030207
Review by William Farr
Hidden beneath thedustcover of the English
version of 'Getting Wet' byjapansociety Japan Book Review: December 2007

Eric Talmadge is the Japanese sign for Onsen, or Sento, and foranyone who has ever lived, travelled or worked in Japan for
any length of time the Japanese hot spring or public bath isinstantly recognisable. The hidden symbol nicely summarises
the fact that to find the best experience of bathing today Mr
Talmadge had to travel far and wide and in many ways, theOnsen of the past is becoming a dying, and more hidden partof Japanese culture.
Talmadge writes with an obvious love for the bath in Japanin all its shapes and forms, with a wide ranging discussion on
the Japanese love of soaking, through to an interesting
description of modern-day "super Onsen," which is all
encapsulated by a good geographically deterministic view of
the relationship between the Japanese environment andJapanese culture.
The upside of being a volcanic country is the hot springs,
but the downside can be the volatile nature of volcanoes suchas on the Izu islands south of Tokyo which is now barely
inhabited due to a massive eruption in 2000. Lingering
poisonous gas means that many of the younger generation
have now sought more stable roots on mainland Japan.
Mr Talmadge has a natural inclination toward the scientificaspect of balneology, the science of bathing, and everythingfrom an explanation of why we go wrinkly (too muchosmosis) through to the fact that there have been outbreaks ofLegionnaires disease due to the lack of cleanliness at publicbaths makes for fascinating reading. The Japanese companyof Tsumura is mentioned on a couple of occasions as acompany which treats the science of bathing very seriously.
Particular temperatures, the location of the body, (water up to
the neck) the duration of the bath, (no more than twenty
minutes) make the whole bathing experience very methodical
and scientific.
I was very interested to read about the prefecture where I
spent time whilst on the JET scheme - Tottori. However, I was
not expecting the town where our mid-year conference took
place to be the location of a potentially radioactive mineralbath. The radium present at Misasa whilst being natural unlike many Japanese Sento which in the 1990's wereembroiled in a scandal due to not being truthful about the
freshness of their water and the mineral content within- ispresent at very low levels and must be far better for you thanthe electric shock bath. Electric shock baths, or Hertz baths are
now all the rage and even though as Mr Talmadge explains,
they possess very low voltage one was still enough to makeMr Talmadge's hand cramp up. This surely would make for abathing experience of the strangest sort.
The Onsen of the future must surely be in the mould of theOedo Onsen Monogatari in Tokyo, a "Supaa Sento" which hasthemed rooms, where people bathe without nudity, and canhandle thousands of people in a day.
The most harrowing chapter must deal with the"Soaplands," a word which was developed by vote after theprevious name of "Turkish Bath" eventually became
synonymous with prostitution and the Turkish Embassy
complained. In Tokyo the soaplands are hidden even though
they are very close to the centre of the city. Strangely enoughthe only way to reach the Tokyo soapland is by taxi. There
carnal pleasures are dealt with in a system which developed
as a result of a loophole in the law - washing was not viewed
as prostitution under Japanese law and anything else over and5above that is between consenting adults. Mr Talmadge places
this chapter where it belongs, toward the back of a good book.
There are so many remarkable little stories and facts within
this book that it is definitely worth a read for anyone thinking
about travelling to and within Japan. For those who alreadylive in Japan, Talmadge provides excellent insight into thecountry with good advice to novice Onsen-goers andinteresting asides for the more seasoned bather.

Divorce in Japan:
Family,Gender,and the State, 16002000
By Harald Fuess
Stanford University Press, 2004,
226 pages, ISBN 0-8047-4357-6
Review by Sean Curtin
For most Japanese, divorce
is generally seen as somethingthat was historically rare,
mainly initiated by men, and today's relatively high rates are
considered to be an aberration that goes against "traditional
Japanese values." In reality, a hundred years ago Japan had oneof the highest divorce rates on the planet and marital break-up
was commonplace. Many Japanese are completely unaware ofthese facts and in some cases unwilling to accept a reality
which contradicts an imagined golden past.
Harald Fuess' impressive historical study of divorce inJapan offers a comprehensive and superbly researched guideto an important, but until recently much misunderstood, social
phenomenon. Covering a four hundred year period up to 2000,
Fuess meticulously charts divorce's convoluted evolutionary
trajectory. The reader is taken on a fascinating journey
spanning the centuries, and concludes by offering someilluminating insights into the nation's recent upsurge inmarital dissolution which has seen Japanese divorce rates
match European Union averages.
The invented tradition of a centuries-old low divorce
culture is something the state promoted in the pre-war years
and today's conservative politicians perpetuate. This has
deeply ingrained the concept in the national psyche, even if it
is not actually true. Even though the country's present divorce
rate is very near the European average, many Japanese areconvinced it remains low by international standards. Whilesome of this can be attributed to the tendency to only compare
Japan with the United States, which has an abnormally highdivorce rate, the idealized version of the past is the primary
culprit.
There exists such an enormous disconnect between
historical reality and popular myth that misconceptions
dominate, effectively distorting domestic and foreign coverageof the topic which impedes proper understanding not only ofhistorical but also of contemporary divorce trends. By
providing a coherent and comprehensive analysis, Fuess
makes sense out of what at times seem like counterintuitive
trends and along the way he masterfully debunks most of themyths surrounding divorce.

6

Why were historical divorce rates so high in comparison toEurope and North American? Why did official rates drop so
sharply after 1898? Was the fall a result of the new Meiji Civil
Code adopted in the same year? Why did divorce levels begin
rising again in the 1960s and what do current rates tell us
about contemporary Japanese society? The author
convincingly explains the enigmas surrounding Japanesedivorce, producing a must-read book.
For decades, social scientists have struggled to adequately
explain Japan's supposedly unique divorce trends. For
example, it used to be believed that as a society industrialized,
its marital dissolution rates would increase due toimprovements in female economic status, better genderequality in education, greater social freedom, inter alia. Thisview conveniently explained divorce patterns observed inEurope and North America. However, in the 1960s scholars
realized that Japanese divorce trends did not conform to thismodel. As industrialization gathered pace, Japan's rates
decreased and were in fact the complete opposite to what
modernization theories had predicted. This is just one of themany conundrum Fuess' comprehensive work helps to put incontext.
By skillfully utilizing a broad spectrum of modern andclassical Japanese and European language material, Fuessfurnishes the reader with the most comprehensive English
language guide ever assembled. Among his primary sources,
much of it difficult-to-access material, are government
documents, court archives, legal records, demographic
studies, ethnographic commentaries, personal writings,
diaries, memoirs and a wealth of survey data and statisticalmaterial. The author marshals this formidable arsenal tosystematically demolish the myths and misconceptions that
distort our understanding of Japanese divorce.
Fuess offers a detailed account of historical divorce related
practices and customs such as divorce temples and trial
marriages that have long been misrepresented in Japan, andeven more so in European writings about the country.
Utilizing a wealth of historical documents and surveys heexplains the background before and after the introduction of
the Meiji Civil Code, telling the story of how marriage wasinstitutionalized. He deftly explains how depending on theparticular sources used by historians, the interpretation of
divorce rates can substantially vary.
A considerable volume of past English language research,with a number of notable exceptions, created the simplistic
impression of historical divorce as purely a male persevere
with wives being the victims of their husband's whims or coldhearted in-laws' schemes. Fuess provides a far more rounded
and multi-dimensional picture, illustrating how the process
was highly complex and more balanced.
He demonstrates how the high divorce rates of theTokugawa and early Meiji period functioned as a means toregulate the spouse selection process. He explains that wives
and their natal families could, and often did, initiate marital
dissolution. Indeed, before the promulgation of the Meiji Civil
Code, the whole concept of marriage for ordinary people wasquite different from what we understand today, and indeed
remained so for a few decades afterwards.
Fuess also charts the post-Civil Code shifts in public
attitudes towards divorce and examines how the idea of trial
marriages gradually disappeared. He also investigates thejapansociety Japan Book Review: December 2007

impact that the legal barriers of the new Civil Code had on
thinking about divorce, explaining why marriage began totake on the mantle of the more solemn social institution
today's Japanese are familiar with.
By painstakingly reconstructing the past, Fuess traces aclear line of continuity to the present. His aim is to show thatin some respects contemporary Japanese women are notnecessarily that much better off when it comes to divorce thantheir historical counterparts. Indeed, in some important
aspects of modern divorce legislation, there remain serious
gender inequalities.
One example of this is the current child maintenance system
which is totally inadequate and effectively allows delinquent
fathers to abandon all financial responsibility for theiroffspring with impunity. Another is the ridiculous six-month
remarriage ban slapped on Japanese female divorcees which
does not apply to men who can re-tie the knot the instant theydissolve a marital union. Despite recent legal battles andcampaigns to amend this anachronistic law, it still remains inforce.
It is hard to fault Fuess' extensively researched andeloquently argued book. If I were forced to make any minor
recommendations, it would be for the inclusion of a few morecharts and graphs in the chapter on postwar divorce. Also, it
might have been illuminating if Fuess had decided to include
references to earlier English language works that haveblatantly misrepresented historical practices like the divorces
temples. While some would no doubt have enjoyed a little
academic bloodletting, Fuess' superb scholarship means mostreaders will not feel the need for a demolish job of earlier
works.
Harlad Fuess has to be congratulated for producing themost comprehensive English language social history ofJapanese divorce to date, making a significant contribution not
only to Japanese studies but also to the field of family studies.
His masterful use of such a wide and diverse range of material,
as well as a commendable array of research techniques andskills, places this impressive work in a class of its own.

Reader's
Comments: Under
The Sunby Justin Kerr-Smiley
Reportage Press, 2007, 243
Pages,
ISBN13:9780955572937 (Hardback),£16.99p
Comments by Jon Risfelt
I really enjoyed this novel
which is set during the dying
months of World War II
when Japan and Britain werestill bitter enemies. The story revolves around a young RAF
pilot, Flight Lieutenant Edward Strickland, whose plane isshot down in the South Pacific while attacking a submarine.
Strickland almost drowns and is then captured by less-thanhappy Japanese troops based on a nearby island. The leader ofjapansociety Japan Book Review: December 2007

the Japanese contingent is Captain Tadashi Hayama and at
first he appears to Strickland to be an inhuman monster. Not
unsurprisingly, as an enemy pilot Strickland does not receive awarm welcome from his hosts who initially treat him very
badly. As the novel progresses both Strickland and Captain
Hayama gradually get to know and understand one another.
By the end, they are friends and each sees the other as a humanbeing and not a foe. The book is a great exploration of the way
ordinary people cope with some of the absurdities of war.
Under the Sun spins a credible and gripping yarn. It also
benefits from some good background research which help
make it a terrific read. It's a great debut novel by Justin KerrSmiley. Those who known Japan and the armed forces willprobably enjoy this book the most but I would also
recommend it to anyone interested in modern Japan.

North Korea in the 21stCentury, An interpretative guideby J.E. Hoare and Susan Pares
Global Oriental, 2005, ISBN 1-901903-915 (Cloth), 1-901903-96-6 (Paperback), 253
pages (including index, references/bibliography and black and white illustrations).
Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi
Dr Jim Hoare opened the British Embassy in Pyongyang,capital of North Korea, the Democratic Peoples Republic ofKorea, in 2001 and was the first British diplomat and Chargéd'Affaires resident in Pyongyang. He and his wife Susan Pares,
who accompanied him in Pyongyang and worked with theUnited Nations, have provided in this book a valuable
introduction and guide to North Korea, which will be mostuseful for visitors and future foreign residents in a country
about which so little is known in the West and which is
generally referred to by various clichés
The first and most important part of the book, headed"Understanding the DPRK," outlines the basic facts necessary
to understand the nature of North Korea today. The firstchapter entitled "Politics with North Korean Characteristics"
describes the attitudes and methods employed by the regime.
The authors point out that in North Korea (page 5) "whatmatters is not what you are now, but what your family once
was. There is, in other words, no escaping one's past." Theindoctrination process, the personality cult and the emphasison conformity are explained.
The "labour camps" and the reports of human rights
violations are described, as is the bizarre and ghoulish way inwhich the dead Kim Il Sung has been retained as President and
who is "revered" in ways which make the cults of Stalin and
Mao Tse Tung seem tame.
The book brings out the way in which history has been'interpreted' to support the regime and the Confucianemphasis on loyalty and the relationship between rulers andruled exploited. The North Korean slogan juche (self reliance)
was first expounded by Kim Il Sung in 1955 and is reiterated
endlessly in regime propaganda.
All the chapters in this first part covering the role of history,7the rise and fall of the North Korean economy, society, culturalvalues and the outside world provide a succinct analysis of thecountry and its post-war history. Among the fascinating little
nuggets in these chapters is a brief description of the
Ryugyong hotel (page 46), known to Koreans as "the 105storey building", but never completed: "the vast pyramidcrowned with a crane that has never been retrieved, now adds
a surreal touch to the Pyongyang skyline" which foreign
visitors are not supposed to photograph.

In today's global world outsourcing is an increasingly popular
strategy deployed by a variety of Japanese institutions, including the financial services industry, automotive sector, IT industries, multinational companies and small and medium-sizedenterprises (SMEs). This book assesses the problems and solutions surrounding outsourcing in the international context
focusing on Japan, North and South Korea, the UK, South
Africa , Mexico, Eastern Europe, China and India. It includes
detailed comparative case studies.

Another example of the peculiar ways of the regime is thefact that, although for a time mobile phones were allowed, in
May 2004 "the right to use a mobile phone was withdrawn
from all users, foreign and Korean."

Editor and author
Ruth Taplin with
contributing author
Cint Kortmann atthe book's wellattended launchedwhich was held at
the Blossom Street
Restaurant in theCity (London) on
Tuesday,
20th
November 2007.

The authors in their accounts of the sorry state of North
Korean agriculture and the decline of industry note thatnonetheless real changes are occurring. Despite the continuing
shortages of food, energy and clean water "North Koreansociety, at the start of 2005, is clearly in better shape than it wasseven to eight years before."
They note the limited development of a few markets andsay (page 82): "The impression now is of a society that is
becoming differentiated and unequal." But the state remains
ubiquitous and all powerful, as is clear from their commentson the state of religion and the arts in North Korea.
Since the late 1980s five churches have been or are being
built in Pyongyang. "The initiative, attributed to Kim Jong Il,
to construct an Orthodox church in Pyongyang and to provide
it with a congregation illustrates the decisive part the stateplays in religious affairs (page 90)."
The arts (pages 91/2) "are encouraged, not for their own
sake or as an outlet for individual ability and sentiment, but
primarily as an element in official policies." "In few places has
the subordination of intellectual activity to ideologicalconsiderations…become so entrenched as in the DPRK (page110)."In their chapter on "The Outside World" the authors trace
the history of North Korea's relations with the rest of theworld and "the very limited exposure" of its diplomats to theworld. This "produced a generation with great suspicion ofoutsiders and a dour and unyielding approach to negotiations(page 113)." The authors outline the development of relations
with South Korea and give a fair, if brief, summary of the
problems between North Korea and Japan.

Preview: The
Tokyo Look Bookby Philomena Keet and Yuri
Manabe,Kodansha International Ltd ,Japan (Japan), 2007, Paperback,192
pages,
ISBN:
9784770030610
Preview by Sean CurtinThis is a visually stunningbook on Tokyo street fashion
which by means of some superb photos introduces all the various styles to be found in Tokyo today as well as the people
behind them. Along with the fab photos are some interesting
interviews and commentaries. Philomena Keet, one of theauthors, carried out 15 months of fieldwork for her anthropology PhD (at SOAS) on the topic of Tokyo's spectacular street
fashion. This book represents some of her best visual research.
She looked at the creative and individualistic street fashions
that have been made famous through the magazines FRUiTS
and Tune.

The rest of this review can be read on-line here:
http://www.japansociety.org.uk/reviews/06northkorea.html

Preview: Outsourcing
and Human Resource
Management: An
International Survey
by Ruth Taplin (Editor)
Routledge, 2007, 264 pages, ISBN:
9780415428910
Preview by Sean CurtinThis book was launched a very lively event held at Daiwa
Foundation Japan House in London on Tuesday, 20th
November 2007.

japansociety Japan Book Review: December 2007