A new Japan in the twenty-first century: Introduction to a changing nation

The gap between the identity and the image of contemporary Japan Some time ago I visited Toyota Motor Company in Toyota City close to Nagoya, as briefly described in the Preface to this book. I was briefed on its corporate strategy, on the progress made on its hybrid vehicles and on its advanced initiatives taken in innovative electronic controls. It was impressive. In that very week The Economist carried an article about Japanese car makers in the US, ambiguously titled ‘Twenty years down the road’.1