Six years in the Department of Commerce and experience before that in business in Japan have given Mr. Prestowitz a collection of telling illustrations of how Japan runs its economy. The most interesting parts of the book, however, are his accounts-often firsthand-of American trade negotiations with Japan and why they have so often failed. He wants the United States to "wake up" and make economic strength a national objective. Many Japanese, he says, would like to see this as they are happier not trying to displace the United States as a leader. One can quarrel with the author on a number of points but his book cannot be brushed aside (and it is interesting to find officials of the Reagan Administration regretting the lack of an industrial policy).
