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July 24, 2006
Are You Ready for 「国家の品格」 Week?
Upon reading a Mutantfrog post last Friday, I went out and purchased a copy of Fujiwara Masahiko's massive best-seller 「国家の品格」 (Diginity of a Nation) - a book that openly describes itself as "画期的な日本論" (An epoch-making theory of Japan). According to this Time Asia article, this book has sold 2 million copies (now 2,000,001), which is a lot of copies for a book that openly calls for the end of democracy and the return of "warrior ethics." Instead of arguing against imaginary "Nationalist" straw men, we can read this book and critically consider the whether there actually are strong arguments for Japan digging back in its history to find adequate social, economic, and political direction.
Topics include (from the back cover):
* The illusion of capitalism's triumph
* Pride in a civilization based on emotion
* The importance of Japanese and kanji over English
* Knowing the limits of logic
* The revival of bushido (samurai spirit)
* Why foreign aid is unneccesary
* Love of family, love of hometown, love of the fatherland, love of humanity
* Seeking out a "true elite"
So for the next week, let us consider the persuasive arguments of Japan's favorite upper-class, right-wing mathematician. 2 million Japanese readers can't be wrong!
Posted by marxy at July 24, 2006 12:58 PM
Comments
hey marxy, we better start packing , huh.
Posted by: alin at July 24, 2006 3:52 PM
Are you going to do a summary/review of this book? I've been thinking about grabbing a copy myself to look at, following Adam's anti-recommendation.
Posted by: Mutantfrog at July 24, 2006 5:05 PM
This is a great idea since I only got about halfway through the book before I had to return it to the office (I quit my job on Friday). I hope to pick up a copy in Narita airport on my way to Thailand.
Posted by: Adamu in Connecticut at July 25, 2006 2:08 PM