Reviews for Unmaking the Japanese miracle

The average rating for Unmaking the Japanese miracle based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-07-23 00:00:00 Chen Chen A great book for beginners. I chanced upon this book on the lowest floor of our library where most books usually gather dust over the years and rarely get to be taken off the shelf. The cover caught my attention. I picked it up, thinking it was astronomy-related. I was apprehensive to start the book after I learned it talks about the Banking sector in Japan, two topics I knew nothing much about. But the title still intrigued me and I decided to give it a shot. It was nothing like I imagined it to be. This book is about the human and cultural side of the banking crisis in Japan towards the end of twentieth century. My last brush with anything economics-related was a single course seven years ago. Once I got the hang of the limited jargon, this book read like a fiction book with a gripping plot unfolding over decades. The author did a great job (a lot of research and over 200 interviews) in writing it for a general audience, not too much jargon to frustrate an interested reader, not too watered down that I forget I am reading a non-fiction book. It is interesting to read about how the Japanese banking influenced by their culture is vastly different from the rest of the world. I expected the Japanese to be portrayed as the naive natives and Americans as the savvy saviours, so I knew to take it with a grain of salt. But I was caught off-guard by this one segment that says a Japanese reformer that made a dent in the system was able to do so because of his christian beliefs. (If I want to read about religion, I would pick appropirate books. I am not a fan of such surprises.) Apart from that, the book was a great read. You get to know the key figures, to an extent the motives behind their actions (come on, this is real life, the author can't know everything), the key events that built up to and precipitated the crisis, and the aftermath. I am glad I picked it.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-07-30 00:00:00 Robbin Thiner Living in Japan, the descriptions of stubborn refusal to accept reality can be maddening. The story is well told with some interesting characters. Some of the background is engaging with shady businessmen and a bizarre relationship between businesses, banks and government. But the main facts of the case are pretty simple and spelled out on the cover: vulture fund buys tanking bank, fixes it up, makes a profit, moves on.