List of Tables, Figures, and Abbreviations, Preface, Acknowledgments, 1. Introduction: The Potemkin Factor, 2. Myths, Mendacity, and Methodology, 3. State, Nation, Capital, and Examinations: The Shattering of Knowledge, 4. Gazing and Guiding: Japan's Education-Examination Regime, 5. Schooling for Silence: The Sociopsychology of Student Apathy, 6. Japanese Higher Education as Simulated Schooling, 7. Self-Orientalism Through Occidentalism: How English and Foreigners Nationalize Japanese Students, 8. Playing Dumb: Students Who Pretend Not to Know, 9. Lessons Learned in Higher Education, 10. The Price of Simulated Schooling and Reform, Appendix A: Statistics of Japanese Education, Appendix B: Other Types of Postsecondary Schools in Japan, Appendix C: Modes of Institutional Operation and Simulation, References, Index

In this dismantling of the myth of Japanese "quality education", McVeigh investigates the consequences of what happens when statistical and corporatist forces monopolize the purpose of schooling and the boundary between education and employment is blurred.