The postwar Japanese political economy can't be grasped unless it¡¯s put against the international context: the postwar politics of ¡¯55 system doesn¡¯t make sense, with ignoring the factor of the cold war; the rapid growth of ¡®50s to 60s might have been not viable, if the US had not rebuilt Japan as the bulwark in Far Eastern Asia; the bubble economy of late ¡®80s was ignited by Plaza Accord the US touted. In this regard, this volume places Japan in the international context whereas the 1st volume of the series focuses on domestic settings. The coverage of the book is like this:
Part I: Covering the world system of the late 20th century and the position of Japan
Part II: dealing with Japan¡¯s trade policy, comparative advantage, and financial internationalization in ¡®80s.
Part III: about domestic context of foreign and trade policy
Part IV: tackling the role of Japan in the world
I have to point 2 weakness of this volume:
1. the overall quality of articles is not as good as that of vol.1. the 1st volume of this series is the classic in this field. But they haven¡¯t counted this volume as such.
2. just like the vol.1, this volume is also filled with the positivism of ¡®80s which is outdated with no doubt. It makes the points of the book less persuasive.