The essays in this volume, originally presented to the Trilateral Commission Japan Seminar held under the auspices of the Japan Center for International Exchange, are nearly evenly split between those dealing with diplomacy and those concentrating on domestic issues. Some of the points raised resonate two decades later, as for example Kunihiro Masao’s observation that “In recent years, relations between Japan and the United States have been considerably strained as latent trouble spots continue to rise to the surface”; Yonosuke Nagai’s argument that “The view that Japan has a ‘great power’ status… is an illusion based on wishful thinking”; and government economist Isamu Miyazaki’s frank admission that “…in early 1974, I predicted that our economy would enter a recovery phase later that year…It is obvious that my forecasts were wrong.”

Among the essays, copiously illustrated with tables, is one by Ki’ichi Miyazawa, who later became prime minister. Miyazawa writes, “The values and beliefs that have sustained our modern development have eroded until today both the market economy and democracy itself are threatened….The government must act, even at the risk of overreaching itself.” And Rei Shiratori ventures this hint on the future of Japanese party politics: “…the myth that only [the Liberal Democratic Party] can run government effectively and no other party has real ability to do administration is no longer believed by the electorate.”