[A]n excellent
book...” --The Economist
Financial Times Asia editor David Pilling presents a
fresh vision of Japan, drawing on his own deep experience, as
well as observations from a cross section of Japanese
citizenry, including novelist Haruki Murakami, former prime
minister Junichiro Koizumi, industrialists and bankers,
activists and artists, teenagers and octogenarians. Through
their voices, Pilling's
Bending Adversity captures the
dynamism and diversity of contemporary Japan.
Pilling’s exploration begins with the 2011 triple disaster
of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown. His deep
reporting reveals both Japan’s vulnerabilities and its
resilience and pushes him to understand the country’s past
through cycles of crisis and reconstruction. Japan’s
survivalist mentality has carried it through tremendous
hardship, but is also the source of great destruction: It
was the nineteenth-century struggle to ward off colonial
intent that resulted in Japan’s own imperial endeavor,
culminating in the devastation of World War II. Even the
postwar economic miraclethe manufacturing and commerce
explosion that brought unprecedented economic growth and
earned Japan international clout might have been a less
pure victory than it seemed. In Bending Adversity
Pilling questions what was lost in the country’s blind,
aborted climb to #1. With the same rigor, he revisits
1990the year the economic bubble burst, and the beginning
of Japan’s lost decades”to ask if the turning point might
be viewed differently. While financial struggle and
national debt are a reality, post-growth Japan has also
successfully maintained a stable standard of living and
social cohesion. And while life has become less certain,
opportunitiesin particular for the young and for
womenhave diversified.
Still, Japan is in many ways a country in recovery, working
to find a way forward after the events of 2011 and decades
of slow growth. Bending Adversity closes with a
reflection on what the 2012 reelection of Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe, and his radical antideflation policy, might
mean for Japan and its future. Informed throughout by the
insights shared by Pilling’s many interview subjects,
Bending Adversity rigorously engages with the
social, spiritual, financial, and political life of Japan
to create a more nuanced representation of the
oft-misunderstood island nation and its people.
The Financial Times
David Pilling quotes a visiting MP from northern England,
dazzled by Tokyo’s lights and awed by its bustling
prosperity: If this is a recession, I want one.’ Not the
least of the merits of Pilling’s hugely enjoyable and
perceptive book on Japan is that he places the
denunciations of two allegedly lost decades” in the
context of what the country is really like and its actual
achievements.”
The Telegraph (UK)
Pilling, the Asia editor of the Financial Times, is
perfectly placed to be our guide, and his
insights are a real rarity when very few Western
journalists communicate the essence of the world’s
third-largest economy in anything but the most superficial
ways. Here, there is a terrific selection of interview
subjects mixed with great reportage and fact
selection... he does get people to say wonderful
things. The novelist Haruki Murakami tells him: When
we were rich, I hated this country”...
well-written... valuable.”
Publishers
Weekly (starred):
"A probing and insightful portrait of
contemporary Japan."