Why Has Japan ‘Succeeded’?: Western Technology and the Japanese Ethos

Can Max Weber explain Japan? Professor Morishima of the London School of Economics starts out bravely with analyses of Confucianism, Buddhism and Shinto as they have affected Japanese life (and been changed by Japan). He sometimes returns to the theme, but his interesting analytical history of the Japanese economy is much more concerned with other matters-and often quite controversial in its interpretation. At the end, he summarizes the contrasting experience of China and its religions.