Haffner, Casas i Klett & Lehmann offer a heart-felt plea for Japan to take a series of steps that they believe will make it more "open." The international environment has become more "complex" than it was a few decades ago (p. 10), they reason -- and complex in a way that creates an opportunity for Japanese leadership. Before Japan can lead, however, the authors argue that it (as a country) must reach out more fully to its neighbors and coordinate the organization of a multilateral block. This block should be, they continue, distinctively Asian (p. 13). Only by "embrac[ing an] Asian-based multilateralism [will Japan] promote its enlightened national self interest ..." (p. 14). "Japan does not yet see itself, in our central metaphor, as a global citizen," they explain. "The purpose of our book is to encourage this direction." (p. 15)
This is an impassioned case for a national change-of-heart in Japan. But readers will also find helpful the way it summarizes so many foreign complaints about Japan. In making their case for change, the authors argue that Japanese should:
* jettison claims to a national uniqueness (chap. 2);
* abandon national symbols like Yasukuni that offend their neighbors (chap. 1);
* learn English better (chap. 2);
* appoint more non-Japanese to university positions (chap. 2);
* open what the authors see as largely closed domestic markets (chap. 3);
* welcome risk at the corporate level in a way that the authors believe firms currently do not (chap.4);
* adopt different corporate governance regimes (chap. 4);
* change the courts in a way that the authors argue will make them a stronger check on the bureaucracy (chap. 5);
* jettison the Liberal Democratic Party (chap. 5); and
* welcome foreign immigrants (chap. 6).