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THE MIT ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE JAPANESE ECONOMY: Second Edition. By Robert C. Hsu. Cambridge (Massachusetts): The MIT Press. 1999. xxvii, 523 pp. (Maps. charts. tables.) US$60. 00, cloth. ISBN 0-262-08280-2. CONTEMPORARY JAPAN. By Duncan McCargo. New York: St Martin's Press. 2000. xii, 223 pp. (Tables.) US$59.95, cloth, ISBN 0-312-22741-8; US$18.95, paper, ISBN 0-312-22 742-6.
This review looks at two recently published reference books on Japan. Both can be recommended as supports for teaching courses on Japan as well as for the general reader. The first is an updated version of Robert Hsu's successful compendium of the Japanese post-war economy. It provides discussion of the more common and not-so-common aspects of Japanese economic life (e.g., economic planning, foreign workers in Japan and lifetime employment). It also offers essential English translations and background on commercial and industrial terminology unique to Japan (keiretsu, kaisha, and Keidanren), and a wide range of political vocabulary, such as amakudari gyosei shido and Okuara sho. Besides pithy definitions, there are over 100 essays. These cover important issues related to Japanese financial institutions, trade and overseas investment, management-labour relations and economic policy. Most of these have been updated and expanded by about one-third from the material provided...