AMERICA AND THE FOUR JAPANS: Friend, Foe,...

AMERICA AND THE FOUR JAPANS: Friend, Foe, Model, Mirror by Frederick L. Schodt (Stone Bridge Press: $10.95; 200 pp., paperback original). In this thoughtful study, Schodt examines American and Japanese attitudes toward each other’s civilizations. Although linked by economic, cultural and diplomatic bonds, the two countries offer mirror-images of attitudes concerning work, family life, ethnicity and religion. Schodt concludes, “Our societies are profoundly similar and profoundly different at the same time, existing in complimentary balance, intertwined within a subscribed circle. The differences cause tension, but also attraction and hold out the possibility of extraordinary synergies.” But as he also notes, attitudes in both countries frequently undergo radical shifts.