The Japan Society Review

By Penelope Francks. Cambridge University Press, 2009, 249 pages including index and references, ISBN 978-0521-69932-7 (soft back). Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi. Penelope Francks is an honorary lecturer in Japanese studies in the department of East Asian Studies at the University of Leeds. She has specialized in the study of Japanese economic history. Most books […]

Until the Second World War individual Japanese houses retained some elements of the aesthetic which so pleased and inspired Edward Morse [author of “Japanese Homes and their Surroundings” – 1885], Bruno Taut [author of “Houses and People of Japan” – 1938] and others. In the war huge swathes of Japanese cities were destroyed by bombing and fire. Japan’s housing stock had to be almost completely replaced. Except in some country areas and in a few exclusive urban districts, the old style individual house generally ceased to exist.

Directed by Tetsuya Nakashima If you think that a teacher revengefully lacing students’ milk with her late former lover’s HIV-positive blood is as macabre and horrific as it gets, the final scenes of Confessions will have you hooked and gripped to your seat in uneasy disbelief. Review by Susan Meehan

By Ken Kotani (小谷 賢), translated by Chiharu Kotani, Osprey, 2009, 224 pages including end notes, bibliography and index, ISBN 13-978-1-84603-425-1. Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi. “This study reveals a Japanese military that was in most respects dysfunctional in the field of intelligence. It was not so much a failure of the intelligence organizations themselves […]

By David Mitchell This readable historical novel set in Japan has been well reviewed in the national press. Many Japan Society members will have read about it and some may already have read the book. Anyone interested in the life of the […] Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi

By Atsushi Nakajima, Translated by Paul McCarthy and Nobuko Ochner, Autumn Hill Books, 2010, 182 pages ISBN:9780982746608. Review by Adam House. Atsushi Nakajima (中島 敦) was born in Tokyo in 1909, his father came from a family of scholars specializing in the classics of ancient China, this would not only influence his reading but would […]

Edited by Guy Podoler, Global Oriental, 2009, 242 pages including index and bibliography, ISBN978-1-905246-85-4 Review by Sir Hugh Cortazzi This collection of essays reproduces papers prepared for “The International Conference on Japan in Honour of Professor Ben-Ami Shillony,” which took place at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel between 29 April and 2 May […]

Professor Gough’s Historical Dreadnoughts is biography rather than autobiography. It is a joint biography of two historians of the Royal Navy in the twentieth century. While much of the book is taken up with disputes between these two historical giants – historians have been known to disagree! –it contains much of relevance to the story of the Asia-Pacific war.

Ramesh Benegal (1926-2003) was born in Rangoon, Burma, to an Indian family. When Rangoon was bombed by the Japanese, he was evacuated at the age of 15 with his mother in the hope of reaching India by an overland route. This proving impossible, he returned to Rangoon. Ramesh became infused with aspirations for Indian independence and felt that the Japanese could help in achieving this.

Intellectual Property, Innovation and Management in Emerging Economies, Edited by Ruth Taplin and Alojzy Z. Nowak, Routledge, 2010, ISBN10:0-415-55960-X, £85 This thought-provoking book argues that a country’s development of a robust intellectual property rights (IPRs) framework is fundamental to long-term economic success in today’s globalized world. This is something not just vital for […]