When Sony's Morita suffered a stroke in 1993, he had been on the verge of becoming chairman of Keidanren, Japan's leading business federation. The wind of globalization had finally cleared away the obstacles to his assumption of the top post in Japan's tradition-bound business community, as befitting his international renown. Morita had an incomparable network of personal connections, both in Japan and across the world, including numerous key political figures. He had the power both to present bold demands to the Japanese government and to argue on equal terms with American counterparts in English. Had he assumed the Keidanren chair, he might have created quite a different Japan.
Experts discuss three key areas where science is on the march.
Research on the brain requires a new sort of cross-disciplinary approach. The Rape of Nanking , Iris Chang has attempted to revive memories of the tragedy that befell the Chinese people in Nanjing when the city fell to the Japanese in 1937-38. But her work is full of myths and misstatements. It is not true that historians in Japan and elsewhere have failed to publish detailed studies of the atrocities. Claims that Emperor Hirohito was directly involved and that the Japanese military was pursuing a policy of genocide are implausible and unsubstantiated.