Leaving Japan: Observations on the Dysfunctional U.S.-Japan Relationship

Customer Reviews:

A hot book, and an accurate one.......2001-11-15

This book seems to me one of straight talk, a rarity in the area of Japan studies, in that it cuts to the bone on important topics such as Okinawa, an island whose people are bearing the brunt of all that is wrong with U.S.-Japan relations. As Chalmers Johnson says on the his cover blurb, the writer's "chapters on Okinawa alone are worth the price of admission." That is true, but there is more to recommend it.
It is unpopular in many quarters to criticize Japan, and this book will draw its share of flak no doubt for that "sin," but it is necessary that a few people write the truth about that country and its asymmetrical relationship with America, or as John Kenneth Galbraith once put it, the favored nation that that has been "screwing" the United States on trade since the the 1960s, but one that still can't seem to keep its own banking system in order. "Leaving Japan" also offers most interesting insights into Japan's fall from economic grace and its inability to change, even though its economy may contract.
This is a little book that you are likely to either love or hate, depending upon where your sympathies lie.

A controversial and excellent book.......2001-11-11

I was first attracted to "Leaving Japan" when I noticed the jackals were circling it, and sure enough, I found that another book daring to criticize Japan and even the U.S.-Japan relationship was being savaged by Western apologists.
This brief volume pulls together many of the ideas put forward by previous critics and molds that argumentation into a coherent whole, along with what seems to be an original assertion that U.S.-Japan relations are based on a de facto trade-off of open American markets for Japan in exchange for U.S. military bases on Okinawa.
It further argues that in this disastrous equation, everyone loses: the Okinawans lose by having too many troops and foreign military running loose on a small isle, the Americans lose by allowing their markets to be exploited by a Japan that does not reciprocate, and in the end even Japan loses by not competing honestly in global markets and so ending up with internal weaknesses and an inability to restructure its own economy and political system when it most needs to.
The Japan that is portrayed in this book certainly resembles the one that I have seen and experienced during my years in Asia.
"Leaving Japan" is not a book written for academics and scholars so much as it is a work to be read by the general public, especially the ordinary American citizen, who will profit greatly from the tale that unfolds on its pages. I enjoyed it.

A truly unremarkable book; subject matter without insight.......2001-10-29

Leaving Japan: Observations of a Dysfunctional US-Japan Relationship is a 5 page book squeezed into 198 pages, about how the Japanese have staged a surprise attack - economically, politically, militarily and diplomatically - on the author, Mike Millard. Its centrepiece is a unremarkable rehash of revisionist arguments on Japan that are more noteworthy for their datedness than for their insights, surrounded by personal vignettes of stunning banality. The book has been written without any grace, vision, or originality, and although you may find yourself quoting lines from the text, it will not be because you admire them.

Mike Millard seems to have aimed the book at readers who may not have heard of Japan, or perhaps even of the concepts known as economics, history or political science. This is the National Inquirer version. If you have the slightest knowledge of the events in the book, you will probably know more than it can tell you. There is no sense of history, strategy or context; according to this book, the US-Japan relationship does not work because America is jingoistic and stupid while Japan is clever in its xenophobia, sakoku mentality and Japanism (a code word for racism.)

As for the portrait of the Japanese themselves, it is so one-dimensional that most readers will wonder how a journalist living in the country for over eleven years could not develop the essential tools necessary to investigate into the society further. By the author's own admission, he does not read Japanese and his listening comprehension is limited at best. This revelation makes perfect sense as it also ties into Millard's general attitude towards "Japan" (those quotation marks, again): his Japanese father-in-law does not appreciate him; his Japanese colleagues treat him unprofessionally and unfairly, the Japanese are largely responsible for the economic plight of African-Americans, etc. What any of these vignettes have to do with the Balance of Payments, one hundred thousand US troops in Okinawa, or the nature of Zen Buddhism is beyond me but Millard manages to weeve them into the text anyway.

Indeed, if anything positive can be said of the book at all it is its unique ability to dumb-down some rather controversial studies of US-Japan relations by the English-speaking community (e.g., Okinawa base problem, Japanese mentalite', US-Japan Trade frictions, etc.) and turn them into sound bites for the lazy university undergraduate completely uninterested in the country. Don't want to read psychoanalyst Miyamoto Masao's Straightjacket Society? That's okay: read Leaving Japan and in two pages you are given a quick synopsis of some general thoughts posing in the form of a book chapter. Having problems with Ivan Hall on Academic Apartheid in Japan? That's okay: read Millard. He'll tell you in one parragraph what took Hall an entire book. It is truly the ultimate in Cliffnotes on Japan revisionism - a rather sophisticated approach to analysing the US-Japan relationship in its own right that has been bastardised to support the ravings of a disenfranchised, middle-aged man.

This is truly an unremarkable book; "Leaving Japan" supplies the subjects, but not the inspiration or the context.

One dimensional tripe on Japan US relationship.......2001-10-19

A summary of this book would be: Author's views on life in Japan, the US-Japan relationship, (security - Japanese paying in cash, Okinawans in quality of life. Economics/Trade - Japan getting a free ride and the US acquiesing) and views on what makes Japan "different". (history)

Some of Mr Millard's observations on life in Japan are of a sufficiently high standard that they might just have made it into a short airline magazine story about Japan. His short commentaries on the tale of the 47 ronin or Buddhism are amusing, but hardly insightful. The book goes downhill from here.

If Mr Millard had written his book ten years ago it might have made more sense from an economic viewpoint. Along with other revisionist books such Eamonn Fingleton's "Blindside" (a book about how Japan would overtake the US by the year 2000), "Leaving Japan" is an economically illiterate and out of touch book. The only amazing thing about the book is how such a clearly "revisionist" book could have been published in 2001. The revisionists were powerful in the first half of the first Clinton administration. They sought to get 'managed trade' and a US industrial policy. As Japan's economy crumbled and the US took off, the thin intellectual veneer was worn off and the sensible people found other subjects to bang drums about.

There are many good books on the problems with the Japanese economy, especially structurally, unfortunately the author appears not to have been exposed to them. This also appears to be true of his simplistic understanding of US security needs. The US presence in East Asia has been explored well in the Nye report and by several relatively recently published books by prominent political scientists, and is far more complicated than the trite arguments made in this book.

The author clearly does care about Japan and understandly is trying to convey the message that it needs to change. Sadly, the analysis of the problem is flawed.

Excellent behind-the-scenes examination.......2001-08-16

As an American who has lived in Japan for eight years and digested volumes of scholarship on Japan, I can say with a certain amount of authority that Millard's book stands among the best of the to-the-point titles.

In Leaving Japan, Millard explores how Japan has been exploiting America's markets, while tenaciously protecting its domestic markets. Millard shows how America has made itself vulnerable to this abuse because of its somewhat outdated US-Japan security alliance. For the sake of the "broader relationship" (military presence in Japan), America has sacrificed many American companies and jobs so that Japanese businesses could set up camp in America. While there are examples of Japanese companies that have bought sinking businesses in America and revitalized them and the local communities they supported, this isn't always the case.

Realizing that that the US security treaty is its ticket to US markets, Japan has put the brunt of the burden for hosting the US military on Okinawa, an arrangement laden with bitter ironies. Having lived in Okinawa, Millard authoritatively and humanely examines the adverse effects this has had on Okinawa (US military presence of course boosts the economy, but economy isn't everything).

Millard's work is important because, as the title says, the relationship between the world's largest and second-largest economies is dysfunctional. Rather than acknowledging where their differences lie so they can keep appropriate neighborly distance, these two nations have in too many instances obligated themselves to each other first, then thought about it later. Calling it cultural outreach is embarrassingly naive; these obligations are almost entirely motivated by greed on both sides. These two civilizations are culturally as well as geographically a world apart. On both sides, a certain amount of distrust from the days of WWII remains, and media and entertainment twist perceptions of the other side. More fundamentally, America places a heavy emphasis on the individual, whereas the Japanese prefer to rely on group relations. This might not sound like a big difference, but just ask an American in Japan who has on occasions had to fight to hold onto his or her identity, or a Japanese person in America who feels lonely because s/he doesn't have the support and comfort of the Japanese group. A lot of misunderstandings arise out of this one fundamental difference, and neither side will likely get its head around the other's feelings.

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Leaving Japan: Observations on the Dysfunctional U.S.-Japan Relationship.: An article from: Pacific Affairs
Alan Rix
Manufacturer: University of British Columbia
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0009FA34E
Release Date: 2005-07-30

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Pacific Affairs, published by University of British Columbia on March 22, 2002. The length of the article is 612 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Leaving Japan: Observations on the Dysfunctional U.S.-Japan Relationship.
Author: Alan Rix
Publication: Pacific Affairs (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2002
Publisher: University of British Columbia
Volume: 75 Issue: 1 Page: 121(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Beware of ignorant reviewers

Pay to volunteer

why there need to be alternatives to the peace corps

To me there is no alternative

Alternatives to the Peace Corps

Alternatives to the Peace Corps: A Directory of Third World and U.S. Volunteer Opportunities (9th Ed.)

Manufacturer: Food First
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Volunteer Work | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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The Back Door Guide to Short-Term Job Adventures: Internships, Summer Jobs, Seasonal Work, Volunteer Vacations, and Transitions Abroad

ASIN: 0935028838

Customer Reviews:

Beware of ignorant reviewers.......2004-04-25

Just a note, having read the other reviews I would like to note that whoever claimed that the Peace Corps is non-political, yet at the same time a governmental organization is a fool.

Pay to volunteer.......2004-02-01

I'm currently a college senior and I bought this book hoping to find opportunities to work/volunteer overseas after graduation. I was disappointed to find that many of the organizations listed in the book require payment to be able to volunteer. Most program costs are quite expensive. The book is also not well-organized -- organizations are only alphabetized, not categorized in terms of project interests or even short-term versus long-term volunteering. Many organizations listed also have religious affiliations. I agree with others that there needs to be alternative to the Peace Corps. Unfortunately, I don't think such alternatives can be found in this book.

why there need to be alternatives to the peace corps.......2003-05-25

This book is great. Here's why.

People may question why there need to be alternatives to the Peace Corps. In my opinion, this is such an self-centered and ignorant view to take. There are many people in the world who are not American -- and thus cannot be in the Peace Corps. Or AmeriCorps or whatnot. I'm one of those many people -- I'm Canadian. What am I supposed to do to have as great a time as the Peace Corps volunteers? The book gives a lot of descriptions of opportunities for me. On top of this, only 3,000 of 100,000 in the Peace Corps are placed internationally every year; people who desire to go overseas would be advised to research other options. The book also focuses on the overseas aspect. Working with other volunteer programs also keeps the volunteer market competitive -- only so many people can be placed by the Peace Corps, it is good to provide so many other people with fulfilling volunteer work. I thought this book laid out the opportunities very well and clearly, though perhaps even more resources would've been helpful.

To me there is no alternative.......2002-11-25

It had some interesting opportunities in it, but after having served in the U.S. Peace Corps myself I wonder who would write a book of alternatives to it. Peace Corps is a non political, non religious, governmental organization that provides skilled professionals to countries that request volunteers and promotes a better understanding of American abroad and that foreign cultures when the volunteer returns home. They do a tremendous amount of good in the world, you also get top notch language and cultural training, get to work with other dedicated humanitarians and get the chance to make friends with a people you would never ordinarily have had a chance in your life to meet. To me there is no alternative.

Alternatives to the Peace Corps.......2001-04-18

Do you feel like helping out, but don't want to be a political pawn with the Peace Corps? Don't get me wrong, the Peace Corps do a lot of good work, but they are subject to the machinations of the US government. This little book is a great reference to other organizations, who do similar work without the government interference. Some of the groups are religious, some are not, and some are religious, but you don't have to be the same religion. It gives contact info, a brief summary of their purpose.

Alternatives to the Peace Corps: A Directory of Third World & U.S. Volunteer Opportunities (Alternatives to the Peace Corps: A Directory of Global Volunteer Opportunities)

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Alternatives to the Peace Corps: A Directory of Third World & U.S. Volunteer Opportunities (Alternatives to the Peace Corps: A Directory of Global Volunteer Opportunities)

Manufacturer: Food First
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Directories | Catalogs & Directories | Reference | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0935028692

Average customer rating:

A wonderful resource
Okay - but old content
Out of Date
'Alternatives' helpful
Excellent Information For Potential Volunteers

Alternatives to the Peace Corps: A Directory of Third World & U.S. Volunteer Opportunities (Alternatives to the Peace Corps: A Directory of Global Volunteer Opportunities)
Filomena Geise
Manufacturer: Food First
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0935028757

Customer Reviews:

A wonderful resource.......2003-09-18

As someone who once thought that the Peace Corps was the only way to do development work overseas, I was thrilled to find the wide variety of alternatives to the peace corps in this book. I recommend it to anyone thinking about going abroad to do consciencious work.

Okay - but old content.......2000-10-23

As one who served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Iran, 1970-72; I wonder why anyone would choose an alternative to the Peace Corps. Peace Corps language training is superlative. The Peace Corps has always manifested altruism. It took two years to learn both spoken colloquial and spoken literary Persian. I was just beginning to learn Classical Persian when the two years were came to an end. I also learned written Persian in the form of Naskh, Nastaliq, and Shekastay, (the last being highly cursive).

Out of Date.......2000-10-01

This book has honorable intentions. However, the publisher/author did not bother to update the information prior to republishing in 1999. I have already received notices from 15 contacts in the book that they are either no longer functioning, the address is no longer valid, or the email is no longer valid. You'd be just as well off looking at an older (and free) version in the library. Should the publisher/author wish to invest a little time and some rewriting, the book might once again be useful in the year 2000.

'Alternatives' helpful.......2000-05-11

Very helpful...liked the web page URLs and how the authors list expenses of each opportunity.

Excellent Information For Potential Volunteers.......2000-05-10

This book is an excellent reference guide to those wishing to do volunteer work,worldwide. It has great ideas for alternatives to the politically controlled Peace Corp. I recommend this book for anyone who truly wants to help needy people worldwide.

Alternatives to the Peace Corps: A Directory of Third World and U.S. Volunteer Opportunities

Average customer rating:

A must for any humanitarian wanting to help.

Alternatives to the Peace Corps: A Directory of Third World and U.S. Volunteer Opportunities

Manufacturer: Food First Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Volunteer Work | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0935028625

Customer Reviews:

A must for any humanitarian wanting to help........1999-09-12

This book (or guide) gives information on many different organizations that offer short and long-term volunteering opportunities abroad.

Alternatives to the Peace Corps: A Directory of Third World and U.S. Volunteer Opportunities. (book reviews): An article from: Dollars & Sense

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Alternatives to the Peace Corps: A Directory of Third World and U.S. Volunteer Opportunities. (book reviews): An article from: Dollars & Sense
Lindsay Larson
Manufacturer: Economic Affairs Bureau
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Dollars & Sense, published by Economic Affairs Bureau on July 1, 1997. The length of the article is 480 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Alternatives to the Peace Corps: A Directory of Third World and U.S. Volunteer Opportunities. (book reviews)
Author: Lindsay Larson
Publication: Dollars & Sense (Newsletter)
Date: July 1, 1997
Publisher: Economic Affairs Bureau
Issue: n212 Page: p40(1)

Article Type: Book Review

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Alternatives to the Peace Corps : A Directory of Third World and U. S. Volunteer Opportunities
Filomena (editor); Borchardt, Marilyn (editor); Fernandez, Martha (editor) Geise
Manufacturer: Institute for Food & Development Policy/Food First Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HMW0YK

Average customer rating:

Average customer rating:

More a pamphlet than a book......

Start & Run a Handyman Business (Start & Run a)
Sarah White , and Kevin Pegg
Manufacturer: Self-Counsel Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1551805987

Book Description

* Make a living as a handyman or woman
* Turn your practical skills into a business
* Be your own boss and make money
* Start your business with little or no cash up front

Customer Reviews:

More a pamphlet than a book.............2007-04-07

Not bad info, just limited.... I was looking for something a little richer and specific to the Handyman business. Most the info here is available from other (better) sources that deal more generally with the field of construction contracting. Most of the book consists of generic material that could be applied to any business; anyone using cut and paste could have written this book by borrowing from available sources.
SAVE YOUR MONEY! Borrow the book from your local library, spend 15 or 20 minutes reading it then look elsewhere for substantial information...

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