A must-read for anyone interested in Japans recent past and possible future. The authors manage to be both balanced and hard hitting in their analyses. The overall tone is one of guarded pessimismwith a dash of guarded optimism. Such a stance toward Japans future both at home and in the region and world is well justified.

- Andrew Gordon,author of Fabricating Consumers: The Sewing Machine in Modern Japan,

By bringing together cutting edge interdisciplinary scholarship produced by an international group of researchers, this book provides an illuminating window into how the worlds third largest economy and nation with an unresolved colonial past is trying to come to terms with its fluid present and searching for ways to deal with its uncertain future.

- Sayuri Guthrie Shimzu,author of Transpacific Field of Dreams,

This book, inspired by the ordinary people who survived the catastrophic 3/11 disaster in the Tohoku region, is an excellent interdisciplinary collection of essays by leading scholars that offers an insightful and thought-provoking inquiry into the outlook for Japans near future. A major contribution to our understanding of the economic, political, social, international challenges that Japan faces today.

- Takashi Yoshida,author of The Making of the "Rape of Nanking": History and Memory in Japan, China, and the US,