Structure and Policy in Japan and the United States

Just when Japan and the United States are both caught up in a major debate over the effectiveness of their governments this volume offers new explanations of their comparative strengths and weaknesses. Why can Japan keep building nuclear power plants while it is has a hard time building an information superhighway? Why is the opposite the case in the United States? Will political reform change public policy in Japan? Would it make a difference in the United States? This volume explains why and how. This is one of the few volumes on the two countries that offers detailed studies of value to policy makers plus scholars and students of comparative policy, comparative foreign policy, and comparative economic policy. It can serve the needs of courses dealing with both politics and economics.

"This is an intriguing book: theoretically coherent, logically tight, occassionally elegeant, strikingly original, and relentlessly incentive compatible....This is an important book, a rare book. Buy it. Read it. Assign it to your students." J. Mark Ramseyer, Pacific Affairs, "This is an intriguing book: theoretically coherent, logically tight, occasionally elegant, strikingly original, and relentlessly incentive compatible....This is an important book, a rare book. Buy it. Read it. Assign it to your students." J. Mark Ramseyer, Pacific Affairs