BETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA; BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS AND FOUR LANGUAGES Like a Jolt from a Rocket Launcher 1. Finding a House2. Finding an Office 3. Mountain Climbing (photo)4. Involved in Boso5. More Book Creation6. The Japanese Government Committee7. Committee Games 8. The Role of the Foreigner9. Inside the

BETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA; BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and BETWEEN FOUR LANGUAGES ‘The Japanese mentality is, in most cases, unfit for abstract thinking and takes interest merely in tangible things… Yukawa Hideki.  1. The Original Theory 2. Origins of Differences3. Principles versus Rules4. Japanese Perfectionism5. On Rationality 6. Finding Terminology 7.

A Japanese propensity, which someone once described as phenomenalism, is part of the same collectivist picture. People focus solely on the phenomenon put before their eyes, without bothering to seek out the reasons for it, or its consequences.  Japan’s many bogus scandals provide examples. The media will focus in for

BETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES Yet another Career, foolishly 1. More Shangri-la2. The Land Boom is Coming3. The Problem Maker, IWNC4. The Lockwood House5. Becoming a Builder6. Creating a Community7. The Land Aphrodisiac8. Rural versus Urban Japan9. The Japanese Weekend10. Chiba is

BETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES. And by a Murdoch writer too 1. The J.P.Keating Scholarship 2. The Surprise Scholarship Offer3. Embassy Plots?4. Battling the Bureaucrats5. Bureaucracy Gone Mad6. Ex-Vietnam Types7. More Spies? 8. A Squalid Affair Meanwhile my problems with the Australian official presence

BETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES. 1. Raising Two Bilingual Children2. Reviving Australian Connections?3. Blocked on Every Side4. A Failed Canberra Connection5. Australian Policy Flip-flops. By the mid-eighties life had settled into a routine.  The Japanese lecture circuit ground on. And the committee

BETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES. Battling the Irrationalists 1. Australia’s Troubled Economy2. Rely on the Foreigners3. The Terumo Story – Killing the Golden Goose4. The Exchange Rate to the Rescue5. The Great Australian Car Industry Confusion6. Australia’s Past Manufacturing Prowess7. The Tariff

BETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES. 1. Failure of  Hashimoto Restrictions2. A Chronic Lack of Domestic Demand3. High Savings Harmful?4. The Unbalanced Post-1973 Economy5. The Bicycle Economy 6. The Self-Standing Economy  My impudent belief that I could tell Japan how to solve its economic problems

BETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES. Saving Japan’s Demand-Deficient Economy 1. Exports, Oil Shocks and Mini-Bubbles2. Oil Shocks to the Rescue3. Asset Bubbles also to the Rescue As domestic demand relative to supply began to fall off in the early seventies, goods makers

BETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES. Say What you Like; It’s Still a (Fairly) Free Country Japanese Media 1. NHK. 2.  Koike Yuriko Meanwhile here in Japan things were happening which made me realise I did not need to be chasing vague Australian

BETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES. Try Walking on Two Legs 1. Trade Problems 2. Endaka (yen appreciation) Problems3. Harmful Exchange-rate Protectionism4. Textbook versus Sensible Protectionism5. Trade Frictions6. Merits of Local Production7. Manufacturing versus Services8. Anti-Service Sector Bias9. The Colin Clark Factor As we

BETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES. 1. Herd Instincts2. ‘It’s Crazy Therefore We Like It’3. The Honshu Paper Scandal4. A Nation of Cowards?5. Beyond Reason ( Rikkutsu Nuki ) As we moved into the eighties the economy continued to prosper, despite the shock

BETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES. Something wrong with the Japanese mentality? 1. The Tanaka Kakuei boom2. Asset Price Insanity Begins3. Bubble Beginnings4. Bank Foolishness5. The EIE Scandal6. Bloated Collateral Values7. The Anti-Bubble Realists8. The Shiodome Fiasco9. Mythical Assets (Fukumi Shisan)10. The ‘Resort’ Boom11.’Yutori’ to the rescue12.

BETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and BETWEEN FOUR LANGUAGES:  Post – Bubble; the Morning After 1. Back to Front Land Taxes2. Living with the Bubble3. More Japanese Book Writing4. Campus Life5. Pride before a Fall With the Bubble out of the way we could finally begin

BETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS AND FOUR LANGUAGES. The Road to Reform 1. The Committees2. The Education Ministry3. The National Peoples Commission of Education Reform4. The University Education Sub-Committee.5. The High-school English Language Committee6. Reform Impossible. A Book Education ‘reform’ was another problem needing attention.

BETWEEN FOUR WORLDS: CHINA, RUSSIA, JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.BETWEEN FOUR CAREERS and FOUR LANGUAGES. Dogged by a word: ‘Reform’  1.  Economic Reform Dogmas2.  Nikkei’s ‘Structural Reform’ Hangup3.  Retaliation via Voice4.  Foreign Advice also Rejected5.  Asahi and Others Too6.  TV, NHK too7.  Western Media Too Throughout the seventies and well into the