LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- The best book on the modern Japanese political economy is the late Shigeto Tsuru's "Japan's Capitalism: Creative Defeat and Beyond," published by Cambridge University Press in 1993. Tsuru holds to the great original tradition of economics as a sub-branch of moral philosophy, not of mathematics (to which it has degenerated in many economics faculties today). His book, apart from providing an incisive analysis of the Japanese economy's postwar development, raises some profound questions not only about Japan's political economy, but also about both macroeconomics and capitalism in general. Almost 10 years old, it remains highly relevant, indeed visionary. In upcoming installments of this series, I shall refer to his book and to his vision.
Let us begin with the end, with the vision that he summarizes in the first page of his final chapter, "Whither Japan," and then proceeds to develop in detail. Tsuru writes:
"A Japan that takes the lead in pressing for world disarmament, is assiduous in the fight against disease by making the country the health-care center of the world, lays emphasis on tourist facilities at sites of scenic beauty, is active in international exchange in the fields of cultural and aesthetic life, is radically willing to increase the country's contribution to the United Nations University, and works hard, through both aid and trade, to wipe out the poverty that plagues the Third World, would be a Japan where the people would feel assured of holding in common positive values worth defending."