Review by Choice Review
Almost everyone is aware that Japan is ascending economically while America is rapidly descending, yet few can believe it and fewer still can explain it adequately. Nowhere is the change more dramatic and astounding than in the international trade and investment relationships of the two countries. Prestowitz, who has lived in Japan and has represented the US in trade negotiations between the two, has an excellent background to provide an explanation. He does not disappoint. In a highly readable account, full of convincing concern, analytical insight, and relevant anecdotal detail, he ties the trade and investment developments to the differences in the cultural and ideological characters of the two nations. He adroitly examines the failure of Americans to pursue economic negotiations effectively with the Japanese and suggests specific new policies for both nations, some of which have considerable merit. This is likely to be a landmark book of wide popularity, especially in the next year or two. No general US library collection should be without it, regardless of any previous acquisitions on the subject. -J. W. Nordyke, New Mexico State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Prestowitz, a leading trade negotiator in the Reagan administration, propounds the provocative thesis that Japan's refusal to open its markets and its staying power are the keys to its success. U.S. financial capital is too expensive and too impatient, he states. Hence, despite the lack of a long-term vision, the Japanese have the capacity to absorb long-term losses. Prestowitz provides many insights into why American firms need to understand and solve their problems of quality control. Fascinating case studies of the Japanese triumphs in the semiconductor and machine tool industries round out this solid addition to the public policy debate on the Japanese threat to American business. Notes, bibliography; to be indexed. BK. 338.0952 Japan-Industries-1945- / U.S.-Industries / Japan-Commerce-U.S. / U.S.-Commerce-Japan [OCLC] 87-47775
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A Washington business consultant and former government trade negotiator, Prestowitz here analyzes economic and cultural differences underlying our trade deficit with Japan and the U.S. decline in international markets. He also examines efforts to resolve our free-trade dilemma. Japan is a close-knit, exclusionary society, notes Prestowitz, with no room for U.S.-style individualism and little understanding of ``fair'' competition. Highly personalized Japanese companies with lifetime-employment policies cooperate as cross-shareowning groups to common advantage. By contrast, argues the author, when rival giants IBM and AT & T cautiously held back, independent young physicists and engineers``the small and the swift''created a spectacular global electronic industry, which Japan's government and industry, acting in concert, proceeded to preempt through investment, imitation and intense product development. Near-dominance in the American market ensued. What to do? Whatever the answer, readers of this book will understand far better the question. (April) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
$19.95. econ Written by a veteran U.S. trade negotiator with Japan, this book discusses the economic and institutional differences that led to U.S.-Japan trade imbalances. As in The Reckoning by David Halberstam ( LJ 12/15/86), the differences are seen through the eyes of two companies (here Motorola and Nippon Electric Company). Prestowitz also provides an inside view of recent U.S.-Japanese trade negotiations by a participant. Recommended for its nontechnical discussion and realistic solutions that don't require a grandiose transformation of the U.S. economy. Richard C. Schiming, Mankato State Univ., Minn. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
