A general resource that covers Japanese history from its beginnings through the 1990's is Conrad Schirokauer's A Brief History of Japanese Civilization (1993). Japan: A Modern History (2001), by James L. McClain, is a well-written history of Japan from the beginning of the seventeenth century to the end of the twentieth century. A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present (2002), by Andrew Gordon, looks at the changes in Japanese society and politics over the course of the last two centuries. Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (2000), by John W. Dower, is an indispensable work on Japan during the American occupation after the war. Japan: A Postindustrial Power (1991), by Ardath Burks, details Japan's modernization with special emphasis on contemporary society and politics. The importance of rice to Japanese self-identity is explained by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney in Rice as Self (1993).
Once thought to be an economic powerhouse, Japan was having trouble adjusting its economy to the pressures of the twenty-first century. Edward J. Lincoln's Arthritic Japan: The Slow Pace of Economic Reform (2001) concludes that Japan's economic stagnation is likely to continue and that its politics will become increasingly nationalistic as a result. Japan's Economic Dilemma: The Institutional Origins of Prosperity and Stagnation (2001), by Bai Gao, looks at how the Japanese economic system created a bubble in the 1980's that afterward led to an economic slump.
A free monthly magazine, Japan Now, which summarizes contemporary happenings in Japan, is available from the Japan Information and Culture Center, a subdivision of the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D. C. An excellent means of comparing Japan to the United States is the book U. S. and Japan in Figures (1991), published by the Japan External Trade Organization. Over one
Hundred different aspects of the two countries are compared, with easy-to-interpret data.
The most important Internet sources about Japan are the prime minister's office at Http://www. kantei. go. jp/index-e. html; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Http://www. nttls. co. jp/infomofa; and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry at http:// Www. miti. go. jp/index-e. html.
World History
