Susan Carpenter is Managing Director of International Markets Analysts Limited. She has worked for Japanese business and government organizations, and has also served as the Director of the MSc in International Business and Emerging Markets at the University of Edinburgh Business School, UK. Her previous publications include Special Corporations and the Bureaucracy: Why Japan Can't Reform (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), Why Japan Can't Reform: Inside the System (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) and Japan's Nuclear Crisis (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

• INTRODUCTION 1. Back to Basics? 2. THE SIGN OF THE TIMES: Japan Inc (1955-1974) 3. The Route to Heaven-on-Earth 4. Pork-barrel Politics in the Prefectures: the winners 5. The Japanese Economic Miracle: Japan Inc on Center Stage 6. The Roaring 80s: The Bicycle Economy Out of Control 7. The Metamorphous of Sanraku Inc 8. The Martini, Glenfiddich and Babycham Marathons 9. Marketing and Advertising Strategies: What's it all About? 10. Bubble, Bubble Turmoil and Trouble 11. Special Corporations: Insatiable 12. The Skill at Disguising 13. The Price of Pork-barrel Patronage: Beggars Can't be Choosers 14. Still Bubbling