The author attempts to dispel what he believes to be the myth of modern Japan, and finds that it is not the extraordinary success it is frequently claimed to be.
Part 1 Superior grades: Japanese-style management - fact or fiction?; Japanese companies - the all-mighty "Kaisha"; industrial policy - promoting and meddling. Part 2 Satisfactory grades: economic progress - onward if not upward; education - what is learning?; crime - integrating the criminal element. Part 3 unsatisfactory grades: politics - the Japanese way; society - discordant harmonies; internationalization time to join the world. Part 4 Inferior grades: quality of life - if you can call that quality; amenities - be it ever so humble; welfare - what is there to be entitled to?.
