THE OUTNATION: A Search for the Soul...
THE OUTNATION: A Search for the Soul of Japan by Jonathan Rauch, photographs by Joel Sackett (Little, Brown: $10.95; 182 pp.). A noted journalist and former Fellow of the Japan Society Leadership Program, Rauch offers brief apercus on life, culture and business in Japan. Dismissing many exotic popular images as “glamorous hogwash,” he discusses the strengths and weaknesses of postwar Japanese society, especially the attitudes toward research and creativity. Western scientific tradition requires researchers to look for mistakes and challenge methods and conclusions--alien values to people who exalt consensus over individual initiative and avoid confrontation. Intelligent and provocative, Rauch’s insightful study rises above gushing endorsements of Japan as the “way of future” and Japan-bashing polemics.
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