Beyond Japan

This book argues that East Asia's regional dynamics are no longer the result of a simple extension of any one national model.

Peter J. Katzenstein is Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. His many books include A World of Regions: Asia and Europe in the American Imperium; Cultural Norms and National Security: Police and Military in Postwar Japan; and Small States in World Markets: Industrial Policy in Europe, all from Cornell. Takashi Shiraishi is Vice President and Professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Japan and the author or editor of many books, including three award-winning books. Among his English-language books are An Age in Motion: Popular Radicalism in Java, 1912–1926 and After the Crisis: Hegemony, Technocracy and Governance in Southeast Asia. Katzenstein and Shiraishi are coeditors of Network Power: Japan and Asia, also from Cornell.

The volume edited by Kazenstein and Shiraishi seeks to discuss Japan's relatioship with the newly-emerging Asian Pacific regional dynamics since the collapse of the 'bubble' in the early 1990s brought Japan to its knees. Their basic arguments is that region—making is no longer about following particular national models but rather about the emergence of a 'truly hybrid form of regionalism'. Despite the use of the word 'beyond' it is still very much a Japan-focused volume and Japan specialists will find much of interest here.

Muthiah Alagappa, Director, East-West Center Washington:

Drawing attention to certain political, social, and economic developments in Japan, this book offers important insights on the changing engagement of Japan with East Asia since the early 1990s.