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Fo Gaoyi, a Harvard PhD student in 1958, (Ezra F. Vogel) = “text-remarks” label = “Remarks”> (Florence Kluckhohn) came to Japan with his wife and younger son, where he conducted a field survey on the comparison of families with normal children and families with abnormal children. The results of his investigations in Japan were recorded by him in (1963) . This book not only got him a Harvard Ph.D. The degree also changed his academic trajectory-after keenly discovering the key role played by Japanese wage earners in the post-war economic take-off of Japan in the late 1950s, he turned to studying the economic, social, and political aspects of Japan and the entire East Asian region. Development has become a rare American scholar who is proficient in China and Japan.

The publication of “Japan’s No.1: Enlightenment to the United States” in 1979 brought Fu Gaoyi’s attention outside the academic circle for the first time. “Japan No. 1” has aroused strong repercussions in both the United States and Japan. On the one hand, Americans have doubts about the “Japan No. 1” statement, although this turmoil has witnessed the vigorous development of the Japanese economy in the 1980s. On the other hand, the Japanese felt that years of hard work after the war had finally been recognized by some authority, greatly encouraging national self-confidence, and this sentiment is familiar to the Chinese today.

However, 11 years after “Japan First” swept the book market, the Japanese economic bubble burst suddenly, and then Japan ushered in a flood.The long recession period made Fu Gaoyi face a lot of doubts. When he gives a lecture in Japan, there will always be questions from the audience: “Do you regret writing” Japan First “now? What’s wrong with you?”

“I never regretted writing the book” Japan First. “Instead, when I flipped through what I wrote in the book, I believe it was a correct description of Japan at the time, and it was also a book The forecast of the development trend in the 1980s after the publication. “When Fu Gaoyi published” Is Japan Still No. 1 “in 2000, he gave the answers to the above questions directly in his preface.

Twenty years after its release, “Is Japan still No. 1” was introduced into China by Shanghai Translation Publishing House, this is the first time the book has been formally published in mainland China. “New Middle Class” “Japan’s First” has also been published by the translation agency) . In a recent online book release conference, Sha Qingqing, the translator of the book and deputy director of the Shanghai Library Historical Documentation Research Center, talked about the publishing backgrounds of “Japan First” and “Is Japan Still the First?” Analysis of past, present and future.

“Is Japan still the number one?”

【美】 by Fu Gaoyi

Sha Qingqing Translator

Shanghai Translation Publishing House December 2019


“Japan’s No. 1” controversy: the loss of the United States and the pride of Japan

As in “Japan First”According to the subtitle “Enlightenment to the United States”, Fu Gaoyi wrote this book in fact hoping to use Japan as an example to point out some problems in the United States. The book’s publication in the late 1970s coincided with a more subtle point in time: Japan has completed the post-war revival, the economy is rapidly rising, and it is striding towards a period of full prosperity; the United States has just ended the Vietnam War, the economy has entered a long depression, and social problems are increasing. . At a time when the strength of the United States and Japan appeared to be dying, the publication of “Japan’s No. 1” sparked a huge splash in both countries.

Sha Qingqing pointed out that at that time Americans’ controversy on the book focused on two aspects: As the “superpower” of the United States, was it really overtaken by Japan? Does Fu Gaoyi describe Japan excessively? If the immediate response to the publication of “Japan First” was more disdain and questioning, then in the 1980s, Japan entered the era of the most prosperous and glamorous economy-especially the signing of the “Plaza Agreement” in 1985. When the value of the U.S. dollar rises sharply—from business to individuals, the appearance of spending money all over Japan is truly giving Americans a strong impact.

The Japanese raced to acquire American companies such as Columbia Pictures. Landmark buildings such as the Rockefeller Building in New York were also included in the Japanese. Nissan has swept the U.S. market, causing Ford, Chrysler, GM, etc., which have repeatedly revealed product safety issues. Native American car companies have little to fight back … Americans who witnessed this all remembered “Japan’s No. 1” written by Fu Gaoyi in 1979, and felt that what he said seemed correct. “For Americans, this is the first time that they have felt the mysterious power from the Far East. It can be said to be a shock to them. Now many people talk about the situation in China, and they will say that it is very similar to Japan in those years, and there are analogies in many places. Sex. When I communicate with some Japanese friends, they will also say that you are in the same situation as we were then, and many problems are the same as we encountered at the time. “Sha Qingqing said.

In Japan, this book elicited a very different response-the results of Japan’s post-war revival were recognized by authoritative American scholars, and this feeling made the Japanese very useful. Fu Gaoyi wrote in the book: “This book is clearly aware of something that was just felt in Japan at that time. The Japanese can say that even Harvard professors think we have done a good job and we must have done something right.” “Japan’s No. 1” sold 40,000 hardcovers in the United States and 100,000 copies in paperback; in Japan, it sold a total of 700,000 copies and stayed on the book bestseller list for several weeks.

The pride that Japan First has caused in Japan is excusable. At the end of the 1960s, Japan’s gross national product (GNP) Middle and high rank second. Although the economic growth rate declined due to the oil crisis in the mid-1970s, Japan quickly overcame the negative effects in four years. From 1978 to 1990, Japan’s competitiveness increased far more than the United States and Europe. The electronics sector has performed particularly well. Sha Qingqing pointed out that the mentality change of “Japan Rise” has laid the foundation for two iconic events: one is the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, which is the first time that Japan has returned to the international stage as a post-war revival country; the second is 1970 Expo 2010 in Osaka, that World Expo focused on showing the economic and social achievements of Japan’s many years of development. The Expo Park in Osaka is still preserved to this day, and the “Sun Tower” statue in the park is regarded as a totem of the Japanese Revival era.

“By the end of the 1970s, Fu Gaoyi’s book just catered to this psychological need of the Japanese: Does the world recognize Japan’s achievements and the things Japan does? So (” Japan’s No. 1 “) This thing is very exciting for them.” Sha Qingqing said that because of this book, Fu Gaoyi became popular in Japan and became Guests of Japanese political and business circles, some older Japanese scholars and politicians he knows are proud to be able to make Fu Gaoyi.

In the book, Fu Gaoyi shared a past story, reflecting the psychological state of Japanese society desperately hoping for outside recognition at that time: the staff of the Japanese publishing house decided to keep the English title on the cover of the Japanese version, thinking that if the title was changed Japanese katakana will make some people think that this is a Japanese book. But with the English title on the cover, potential readers will realize directly that the book was written by a foreigner, which is more attractive to them.

“According to Fu Gaoyi, research works in Japan, China, and other parts of East Asia are photos of that particular age. He said that I wrote” Japan’s New Middle Class “to reflect Japan’s 1950s By the 1960s, the middle class of the Japanese working family began to form; “Japan’s No. 1” was a section where the Japanese economy began to flourish and reached the highest point. “Sha Qingqing commented, compared with” Japan’s New Middle Class ” “Japan First” is more popular, which shows that he has consciously extended the potential readership beyond the academic circle, facing the entire American society, “he kind of positions it as an academic bestseller.”

“Japan’s First: Inspiration to the United States”

【美】 by Fu Gaoyi

Gu Ying, Zhang Ke, Dan Liu translation

Shanghai Translation Publishing House March 2016

Since the early 1990s, Japan ’s bubble economy burst and a long period of depression began. This made Fu Gaoyi’s views face many questions again, so he focused on these questions in “Is Japan Still No. 1”? He emphasized that he never considered Japan to be the largest economy in the world, or had surpassed the United States to become the world’s number one, but that Japan did have some places worth studying in the United States. Even after the Japanese economy fell into a long depression, he still thinks that Japan is not as unbearable in many fields as the outside world imagines, and the entire society is still operating smoothly and orderly:

“For example, their basic education level is the best in the world, they are experts in collecting data all over the world, their crime rate is the lowest in the world, and their bureaucracy is widely recruited. At the same time, by international standards To measure, their business has a high level of loyalty. I believe what I described 20 years ago is correct, and most of those descriptions are still correct today. “


Change and change in Japan: Chinese people must have an objective understanding of Japan’s “bubble economy”

Sha Qingqing said that the long-term economic slump of the Japanese economy in the past three decades has caused many Chinese people to have the idea that “Japan is dead”, but he believes that this only reflects part of the reality of Japanese society. Despite the collapse of the Japanese bubble economy, until 2010, Japan’s GDPIt was surpassed by China. In other words, Japan has maintained its status as the “second largest economic power in the world” for nearly 20 years after the end of the bubble economy era. “The so-called depression is more relative to Japan in the 1980s. Yes, but this does not mean that the entire society and the entire country have entered a state of failure.

In fact, Japan has entered the “ultra-stable society” stage since the 1990s. When Sha Qingqing went to Japan to buy old books and records in the 1990s, he found that the prices of records and books in the 1970s and 1980s were almost the same as today, which means that almost no inflation occurred in Japan. In addition, a social survey shows that Japan’s current per capita income has not changed much compared with the 1990s. “From the perspective of social development, Japan is the first country in the world to enter the so-called post-modern state. Its inflation is almost zero. The overall social development is super stable, and the political structure is also super stable. There will be no major changes. . Of course, this state has advantages and disadvantages. The good part is that the whole society is very stable, and the people live very peacefully; the bad part is that the entire society is very boring to the Chinese. “

In view of the high level of basic education in Japan proposed by Fu Gaoyi, Sha Qingqing believes that Japan’s emphasis on basic education did not begin after the war. Historical studies have shown that since the Edo era, the literacy rate of Japanese society has been very high. High, from the Edo era to the Meiji Restoration era to the post-war period, Japan ’s basic education has remained at a high level.

Sha Qingqing believes that in order to establish a more comprehensive and objective understanding of Japanese society, we need to see the changes and invariability of Japanese society: after the burst of the economic bubble, Japan’s “100 million total mid-stream” (100 million middle class) The situation has indeed changed, as described in Miura Exhibition in” Inferior Society “or Zhi Yuhe in” The Thief Family “, the Japanese society ’s The economic structure has changed. Many business owners and self-employed persons have fallen from the middle class. Class stratification in Japanese society has become larger. So-called “low-class societies” or “different societies” have emerged.

On the other hand, although the gap between the rich and the poor has widened in Japanese society, there are still many stable social elements. For example, so far, 30% to 40% of the working population in Japan are employed in the form of life-long employment. “We have been paying attention to the social changes in Japan over the years, and introduced some books, such as” Low Desire Society “,” Old Bankruptcy “, and” Poverty in Women “. Some changes, so to our readers, it seems that (Japan) has changed a lot. But through Fu Gaoyi’s three books on the research and observation of Japanese society, you can still see something (invariant).

In Sha Qingqing’s view, this explains why the Japanese society has been able to operate as usual as it has undergone major changes such as the “March 11” Tohoku earthquake. Even during the current epidemic, many Japanese still go to work as usual, the only difference is to go to the drug store to line up to buy masks in the morning. “I think their entire social structure is good, and their social mentality is still maintained in a very stable state. But this stable state may be good, or it may be bad.”

Following the clarification and further explanation of “Japan’s number one”, Fu Gaoyi also pointed out the problems facing Japanese society in the book. One of the problems is that Japanese companies are not sufficiently internationalized, and are less enthusiastic about integrating into global networks than companies in the United States or other emerging countries. Sha Qingqing believes that this is indeed a problem for Japanese companies, and it can even be said to be a reflection of Japanese nationality.

Taking Japanese culture industry as an example, he pointed out that although Japanese animation culture is popular all over the world, for a long time, this is not the result of the Japanese ’s deliberate management, which is in sharp contrast to South Korea: “Korean drama is very I have been thinking about overseas markets for a long time. Before 2010, I was thinking about how to develop the Chinese market, Thailand market, and how Korean dramas are exported overseas. But the Japanese do n’t consider these, they always think about how I am in the domestic market. Until the beginning of these two years, It ’s loosened, but the entire industry structure and (operation) method is completely different from overseas markets. “

Ezra F. Vogel

Fu Gaoyi also raised the issue of the low birth rate in Japan. Over the past 20 years, we have seen that this is still an important issue restricting Japan’s future development. Since 2017, the number of newborns in Japan has dropped to less than 1 million, and this number has dropped to less than 900,000 in 2019. The rigidity of the social structure and the shrinking of the nuclear family, these problems may continue for a long time, Fu Gaoyi foresaw 20 years agothis problem.

For Chinese readers, reviewing the postwar development history of Japanese society is also of special significance. Sha Qingqing believes that Fu Gaoyi has a strong presupposition in the book that Japan’s development road is 20 to 30 years behind China, and that Japan encountered problems in the 1980s and 1990s. He expressed this meaning in 2000, and I still find it quite interesting when translating this book.

This article comes from WeChat public account: interface culture (ID: Booksandfun) , the original title, “Vogel: even if a bubble economy burst, and I have never regretted wrote ” author: woods people