Introduction To Japanese Politics

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive but too Superficial
Review: This introductionary book about Japanese politics from Louis D. Hayes gives a comprehensive overview on Japanese politics and the political system as well as reaches toward the society, culture, and the economy. It is very well organized and written with great insight. Neverteless it fails to go beyond the surface (this seems to be partly the result of the far-reaching scope of the book). Furthermore this updated version seems not to have been sufficiently rewritten because the changes since 1993 seem not to fit into the overall frame of the book. I have not read the older editions but sometimes the texts seem not to be cohesive and misses the main argument. A traditional approach to writing text books (highlighting the important aspects, study guides, etc.), furthermore, would make the reader profit more from the text. When I read a chapter I cannot always retain enough information to make a coherent arguement about the political developments in Japan.