On Reading Michael Crichton's "Rising Sun" - What Happened to Japan? (Part 1), 7-29-2010

 [This will be continued in On Reading Michael Crichton's “Rising Sun” - What Happened to Japan? (Part 2), 7-29-2010. I have 8 handwritten pages arising out of my reading what was a popular market novel, and that seems too long for one post. This is what happens when one has time, increasing lucidity, and no other outlet for his energy. What else was I to do with my time? Do not worry about giving me an answer. The probation officer supervising my release has no answer to that question. He just looks at my piles of paper with shock, worry, disbelief. sch 2/20/23]

I ran out of reading material and went back to the Volunteers of America's paperbacks. Which is how I came to read Michael Crichton's Rising Sun.

I saw the movie (one of those Sean Connery movies I suspect will not be shown very often.) The movie arrived with controversy as being anti-Japanese. I do not recall whether there was the same controversy for the novel, which is a typical Crichton ready to film book. All the same, what was controversial in the movie exists in the book.

But what Michael Crichton saw as bad about Japanese business practices did not exist in a vacuum. Gore Vidal avidly wrote anti-Japanese essays – or so I recall.

Hard to believe now that in 1992 we all thought the Japanese would take us over. General Motors became the poster child for all that was wrong with American industry. Adopting Japanese methods became required. GM created the now defunct Saturn as a Japanese imitation. Consider this dialog:

"But Japan is different. Evrything works in Japan. In a Tokyo train station, you cna stnd at a market spot on the platfoirm and when the train stops, the doors will open right in front of you. Trains are on time. Bags are not lost. Connections are not missed. Things happen as planned. The Japanese are educated, prepared, and motivated. They get thngs done. There's no screwing around."

Hard to recognize all that today. Microsoft's X-box looks to beat Nintendo, and Toyota had its disastrous recall in 2009. What happened to Japan? 

Shortly after Crichton published his book, Japan fell into a deflationary period and Microsoft produced Windows 3.1. Japan did not become a creator of new computer applications for the Age of Windows. The parties that could take advantage of the new era of computing included two guys named Gates and Jobs.

The thoughts gnawing on my mind while I read the novel were this: did Japanese businesses underestimate us, or did we overestimate them, or was it both? Look at how well Sony did with its music and film purchases – not very well, More from the novel:

"... The Japanese have billions of dolalrs in this peculiar land and they would like a decent return on their investmant. And even though the American economy is collapsing - it will soon be thrid in the world after Japana nd Europe - it's still important to try and hold it together. Which is all they're trying to do."

Third? Never happened. China shouldered past Japan in the past ten years, and I suspect they have now passed Europe. When the American economy coughs, the world gets sick.

sch