Against the powerful image of Japan as a rising economic superpower, or even, in Ezra Vogel's influential formulation a deade ago, "Japan as number 1", this book explores the fragility, hubris and human and environmental costs of Japan's desperate drive for hyperdevelopment.

Introduction Tilting Toward the Millennium: Kobe and Beyond Part One: Political Economy 1. The Construction State: The Pathology of the DokenKokka 2. The Leisure State: Work, Rest, and Consumption 3. The Farm State: GATTing Japan Part Two: Identity 4. The Regional State: Asia and the Dilemmas of National Identity 5. The Peace State: Dilemmas of Power Part Three: Memory 6. Remembering and Forgetting: The War, 1945-95, Concluding Remarks