Issue 14 (April 2008, Volume 3, Number 2)

In this issue our regular review team offers you another excellent selection of the latest books on Japan.

Sir Hugh Cortazzi looks at a stimulating new book by Bill Emmott “Rivals: How the Power Struggle Between China, India and Japan will Shape our Next Decade.” As the title indicates, it explores how the future dynamics between Japan, China and India might evolve and the possible regional and global impact.

This is followed by Fumiko Halloran’s review of a Japanese language book which examines the dissenting legal opinion of Indian Judge Radhabinod Pal, who out of the 11 Allied judges was alone to argue for the acquittal of all Class A war criminals at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. This work is of particular interest as Justice Pal has become a key figure for some revisionist Japanese historians and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Pal’s son while on a prime-ministerial visit to India in August 2007.

On the popular literature front Anna Davis gives us the rundown on a highly readable new novel Death of a Salaryman.

This issue also sees a return to our focus on important new Japanese language books with some insightful reviews by our regular reviewers Takahiro Miyao and Mikihiro Maeda.

One of this publication’s key objectives is to highlight influential and popular Japanese language books in order to give readers a flavour of the contemporary Japanese book scene.

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