Having lived in Japan for about one year on a cultural and language exchange last year, I found this book really interesting. It put a lot of the small cultural differences in perspective for me, and after a couple of pages of reading, I was quite engrossed and couldn't put it down until I had finished. Japan is so different to New Zealand, but often I think I took quite a lot of that for granted - when you've been living in a foreign country for a year, you become quite blase about it after a while. The book firmed up my cultural perception considerably, and although it is now quite dated, the bulk of what it has to say is still relevant in the late 1990s.

I did think that the book had quite a strong focus on the economic side, delving into discussions on such topics as the Japanese corporation, which I don't have such a strong interest in, but I skipped over that part, and as a whole, found it an excellent book, which I would thoroughly recommend to anyone with an interest in things Japanese.

I read this book in the late 80s when I was majoring in Japan Studies in the university. At that time, the Edwin Reischaur crowd dominated everything about Japan. In Edwin's theory, it was wonderful, the Japanese loved Americans, practiced free trade and believed in pretty much the same things as Americans. It was just a wonderful, equal relationship. Jared's was one of the first books I read that dispelled that nonsense. Written by a man fluent in Japanese, who had gone to school in Japan and had no political points to make by sugarcoating everything.
You'll learn just how "different" the Japanese veiw themselves from the rest of the world, you learn of Japanese discrimination and racism, and you'll learn how being a heirarchical society results in viewing others as inferiors or superiors and how this veiw affects Japan's view of itself vs the rest of Asia, and other countries. ( THis information was very valuable and extremly accurate when I went to Japan to live for several years in the early 90s.) You'll learn that the term "gaijin" does not simploy mean foreigner. You'll learn a lot of things about what the Japanese are like and what it is like to live here.
The trade info is now out of date, but the ideas are still valid.

"The Real American Dilemma" is a jolting account of America's greatest problem. The writers gathered here do not worship at the shrine of multiculturalism or diversity.

Jared Taylor, Samuel Francis, Michael Levin and Philippe Rushton have all paid a great price for their honesty in discussing the biological, cultural and political consequences of a multiracial, multicultural America.

This book should be read by everyone who cares about the future of their country. Whites are going to have to start asking themselves hard questions such as: Do I want to live in a Third-World nation full of Third-World people? Must I continue to pay high taxes to subsidize those who cannot or will not assimilate into Western culture? What will life be like when people like Lani Guinier are on the Supreme Court or proficiency in Spanish is required for a government job? Do non-whites honor the rights and culture of whites when they are in power?

Because time is running out, they had better ask themselves these questions soon.

I bought this book in 1999, and never stopped to be reminded of it whenever some event in my personal experience related to immigration. We are losing this country only because white people believe that other races will be as tolerant as whites when they get into power in a future that is not even very far.

Perhaps this book is better for younger readers who, like myself, are too young to remember the civil rights movement of the 60s. I find that people from previous generations have very fixed ideas about race relations in this country and will not be open minded when reading Mr Taylor's book. It is an honest appraisal of the problems facing the US in the coming decades.