The Outnation: A Search for the Soul of Japan

By Jonathan Rauch

Book Overview

In Japanese, the word for "foreign country" means "outnation." But to many Americans and Japanese, it is Japan itself, despite its increasing influence in world affairs, that is the outsider-the outnation: a country, as some have said, in the world but not of it.

How different is this industrial superpower? Why did its fast climb to the pinnacle of the global economy also contain the causes of its subsequent fall? And what can we all-Americans and Japanese alike-learn from the Japanese model?

In this rigorous, searching, deeply personal journey through Japan's islands and institutions, Jonathan Rauch reveals how different the country really is-and how hauntingly, sometimes eerily, familiar. In 200 numbered, lyrical paragraphs, The Outnation takes readers through Tokyo's nighttime crowds and into quiet country hamlets, to the office of a high-tech industrialist and to a farmer's dinner table. He distills conversations with dozens of Japanese, statesmen and professors as well as sushi chefs and innkeepers. He probes the public values of the Japanese and details the inner workings of their political, economic, and intellectual systems.

Now an acknowledged classic, republished with a new foreword by Dreux Richard, The Outnation is a perceptive and honest exploration of Japan and its people-and a sometimes disconcerting mirror that reflects America in a fresh light.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1949450031
• ISBN13: 9781949450033
• Release Date: December 2021
• Publisher: Acorn Abbey Books
• Length: 222 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

One of the best short books on modern Japan

Jonathan Rauch wrote this book more than a decade ago. However, many travelers to Japan still find it one of the best introductions to Japanese society available in English. His profiles of people,places and social mores are insightful as well as elegantly written. Whenever I meet someone on their way to Japan for the first time, I almost reflexively offer them a copy of this fine book.

Beautifully written, insightful

This extraordinarily well-written book came out during a time when Americans were told that Japan was invincible, threatening, and a model society. Jonathan Rauch saw a more complex Japan, one with great strengths but also great difficulties, especially in generating criticism and change from within. His portrait has stood the test of time when many acclaimed "experts" now look like fools.