Race for the Exits: The Unraveling of Japan's System of Social Protection by Leonard J.SchoppaReview by: Lucian W. PyeForeign Affairs, Vol. 85, No. 6 (Nov. - Dec., 2006), pp. 178-179Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20032197 .

Accessed: 11/06/2014 11:03

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Council on Foreign Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to ForeignAffairs.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.112 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:03:07 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Recent Books

there has been relatively little progress on implementing the rule of law). The authors here, anxious to stress the latest developments, somewhat overemphasize positive and underreport negative ones. Yet there is no denying that they are broadly correct in speaking of China's "deep reforms"-reforms that have altered the basic structures of institutions and fundamental cultural norms. Certainly, post-reform China is a much happier place to live and work than Mao's China ever was.

The King Never Smiles:A Biography of Thailand's BhumibolAdulyadej. BY PAUL M. HAN DLEY. Yale University

Press, 2006, 512 pp. $38.oo.

The king of Thailand was born in Boston while his father was studying at Harvard. He was educated in Switzerland. When his uncle abdicated, his older brother ascended to the throne, but the brother was mysteriously shot dead. (The unsolved mystery has led to all manner of specula tion; the palace maintains that it was an accident.) And so in 1946, Bhumibol, at the age of 18, became the king of Thailand.

Handley, a journalist who has spent 20 years in Asia, including 13 in Thailand, has taken on the challenging task of writing a biography of Bhumibol-challenging in that if he is too critical, his work will be seen as a lese majesty, and if he is not critical enough, he will be accused of shilling for the royal family. His account does not present the glossy picture of Bhumibol that a Thai monarchist would indeed, he criticizes the king for not being a more open champion of democratic reforms-but he argues that Bhumibol has used his royal authority to contain the numerous military strongmen who

have dominated Thai politics in the past. Interestingly, as Thai politics become more open, Handley notes, the king may become even more influential, for the Thai people seem to treat him as a sort of living Buddha.

Racefor the Exits: The Unraveling ofJapan's System of SocialProtection. BY LEONARD J. SCHOPPA. Cornell

University Press, 2006, 247 pp. $39.95. For most of the post-World War II era, Japan's economy and welfare system were the envy of much of the world. But in the 1990s, things began to unravel: the econ omy stalled, and Japanese social-security programs suddenly appeared inadequate. Japan's unique system of "convoy capitalism" came to seem outdated, the promise of "life-time" employment was no longer a solid one, and the growing gap between rich and poor suggested that Japan was becoming a heartless society. A populace that had come to expect annual economic growth between six and nine percent was confronted with a one percent growth rate. Schoppa examines howJapanese companies and governments responded to the crisis by using Albert Hirschman's model of"exit, voice, and loyalty." He acknowledges that it is too early to say whether as a result of these negative developments Japan will experience fundamental reforms. In the

meantime, however, what is striking is how unemotional the Japanese have been in accepting their national economic problems: "voice" has not taken the form of calls for revolutionary change, and a degree of "exit" from politics has not shaken the political system. Schoppa also deals in some detail with the decline in fertility rates, as Japanese women have started working more outside the home a break with tradition that may do more

[178] FOREIGN AFFAIRS* Volume8sNo. 6

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.112 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:03:07 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Recent Books

than anything else to bring real reform to Japan's economy and society.

Africa NICOLAS VAN DE WALLE

The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda. BY SCOTT STRAUS.

Cornell University Press, zoo6, 288 pp. $27.95.

Straus' ambition is to examine the 1994 Rwandan genocide through a social science lens. Based on a careful reading of both primary and secondary sources, as well as systematic interviews of peo ple directly involved in the killings, his approach yields interesting new insights into the events of that tragic April. Straus emphasizes that the violence against the Tutsi population was in large part encouraged by a general cli

mate of uncertainty and chaos that had descended on the country as a result of the war between the government and Tutsi rebels. "War underpinned the logic of genocide," Straus argues, "war legitimized killing, war empow ered hardliners." Straus' book is also the first account of the events in Rwanda that is explicitly comparative. Particularly compelling is his comparison of killers in Rwanda with those of the Holocaust.

His careful work shows that Hutu killers do not appear to have been particularly sadistic, hateful, or economically disad vantaged. Rather, they were fairly average people who were afraid of being punished for disobeying orders and worried about the consequences of a Tutsi victory for their own safety.

The Wonga Coup.: Guns, Thugs, anda Ruthless Determination to Create Mayhem in an Oil-Rich Corner ofAfrica. BY ADAM ROBERTS. PublicAffairs,

2006, 320 pp. $26.00.

The quixotic attempt by a motley group of mostly South African mercenaries to topple Equatorial Guinea's dictator for life, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, in March 2004 made the headlines largely because of the alleged involvement of

Margaret Thatcher's ne'er-do-well son, Mark. The coup failed, apparently because

the authorities were tipped off by the South African Secret Service, and most of the coup leaders are today in prison. The least one can say is that there are no heroes in this sordid story: the only redemption for the careless coup leaders, their dimwit followers, and various greedy hangers-on is that they sought to remove from power arguably the world's most awful dictator. Roberts' lively narrative is well served by characters from central casting, and his story reveals much about contemporary Africa and its international relations. Mercenaries are thriving in civil wars, from Congo to Iraq, and are hardly in danger of disappearing. The plotters' fatal mistake was not grasping that the discovery of substantial oil reserves off the coast of Equatorial Guinea con demned their venture even as it made the country an attractive target. The Western governments that had once been likely to react to mercenary-led coups in places like Equatorial Guinea with benign neglect now had real economic interests there-and had found they could do business with the regime.

F O R E I G N A F FA I R S November/December 2006 [179]

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.112 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:03:07 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions