XPost: rec.arts.anime.misc   
   From: bliss@mouse-potato.com   
      
   Hi typers and readers,   
      
        Followups set to rec.arts.anime.misc   
      
        Well Japan is sort of opaque to Westerners but here is a book   
   that explains a lot of things.   
      
   "Japan and the Shackles of the Past" by R.Taggart Murphy   
      
     Part One. The Forging of the Shackles   
      
        There is a short part of the book with 1. dealing with the time   
   before the Edo period, 2. The subsequent Edo period,   
   3. "Restoration" (of Imperial Rule) to the Occupation,   
   4. the(economic) Miracle,   
   5. the Institutions of High Speed Growth,   
   and 6. the Consequences   
      
   Part Two. The Shackles Trap Today's Japan   
        Another 5 separate chapters explaining the   
   problems caused by the Shackles in various   
   areas of economics and politics with various   
   appendices,   
      
        The Shackles start with the ancient Imperial bureaucracy   
   amplified by the Shogunates and the Tokugawa Shogunate.   
   the new bureaucracy under the Meji oligarchs, which carried   
   forward to be used by the Occupation. Then we have the   
   measures taken to  help economic growth and how   
   they helped but also how they are not adaptable to   
   modern conditions.   
        How the elite political families manage to stay in   
   power from generation to generation.   
      
        A lot of the book seems like lists of politicians who   
   ran Japan at various times and how they fail to understand   
   modern democracy and are principally concerned with   
   attaining power and wealth.   
        The author believes that Japan may need a new   
   constitution and it needs to be independent of the   
   USA which treats Japan as a vassal state.   
      
        Hope some of you find this an interesting read   
   I got my copy at the SFPL-Main but it is from Oxford   
   University Press at $29.95   
      
        bliss   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)