Urban Legends of the Japanese Economy
"The Fable of the Keiretsu is so important and well written, it should become a classic in both the academic and popular literature on Japan. Urban legends about Japan view the country as following some kind of Confucian collectivism that does not follow behavior that would be consistent with economic rationality. Yoshiro Miwa and Mark Ramseyer instead argue that the facts about Japan conform closely with what would be both observed and expected in a market economy in which firms maximize profits." - Daniel F. Spulber, Northwestern University"
Yoshiro Miwa is professor of economics at the University of Tokyo. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including, most recently, State Competence and Economic Growth in Japan. J. Mark Ramseyer is the Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard Law School. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including, most recently, Measuring Judicial Independence: The Political Economy of Judging in Japan, also published by the University of Chicago Press.