'Thunder from the East' is not a reference to a bad curry; rather it is the title of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s new book. And it is a good book.
Kristof and WuDunn, whose previous book was China Wakes, are a husband and wife team of New York Times journalists who have spent the bulk of their careers in Asia. What is refreshing about this book is that – after two years of told-you-so tomes on Asia’s bust – this is a book that is optimistic about Asia.
It is directed at the US market, and let’s hope a few US fund managers read it, and buy the authors’ arguments. The one caveat I would give when recommending it is that it is very focussed on a US audience.
I though it a very stimulating read; the reason being that it offers a host of great anecdotes, based on some very intensive journalism. The anecdotes are real world ones, about real people. This is not a book full of interviews with the high profile of Asia – although Mayashi Son of Softbank makes an appearance – and that is its great strength.
It is also unusually good on Japan, where both authors were based for a while, and sent their child to a Japanese school.
A particularly good chapter is called ‘Bellyache in Japan’ which is structured around a meal at Japan’s most expensive restaurant, Kiccho. In post-crisis (or rather, still-crisis) Japan, it is now possible for gaijin like Kristof to get a room in this hallowed home of Japanese culinary tradition.
It wasn’t always so. But times are hard for the restaurant owner Yugi-san. Kristof describes how they took a chairman of a visiting Fortune 500 company to Kiccho and negotiated down the price from $1000 a head to a mere $660 in advance.
He then takes you through the 10 course meal, revealing both the quality of the food and highlighting Japan’s greatness and weakness at the same time. He lucidly skips from one particular course, to an anecdote from a small town he knows (Omiya-cho), back to the freshwater watari crab sashimi course.
The writing is fine as is the structuring of the chapter. What sets it apart is the drama of the meal. Obviously, they are served by kimono-clad ladies, but amusingly Kristof’s is a bit of a haridan. Throughout the meal she gradually insults him because he negotiated down the cost of the meal from the standard $1000 a head. She makes the most of the fact that Kristof’s guest is a big hitter.
“You’ve set too low a limit for such an important guest. We can’t serve him properly when you set this kind of limit. Why don’t you raise it to 100,000 yen per person? That’s the only way to treat such an important guest.”
He replies: “No, I can’t do that. And 60,000 per person already seems quite a bit to me.”
He then describes her reaction: “She pouted. And when my friend the chairman asked for a white wine, she hurriedly presented him with a bottle of Chablis, on behalf of Kiccho. ‘That’s just for him,’ she told me in Japanese. ‘I know you’re a bit tight, so we thought we would present it to him. You’ll have Japanese sake right? Because we can’t give Chablis to everyone.’”
As Kristof puts it: “It was an odd feeling. I had never ordered a meal one quarter so extravagant and yet no restaurant had ever made me feel like such a cheapskate.”
Against this backdrop, Kristof paradoxically sets out what he describes as Japan’s “quasi-communist psychology”; an egalitarianism that leads to a situation where the government spent $100,000 renovating seven year old Daiki Saito’s school in the village of Ichinosetakahashi. This might be reasonable if it wasn’t for the fact that he is the only pupil. Japan’s government spends $175,000 a year educating Daiki Saito.
Kristof says: “When I spoke to Daiki’s principal he was not in the least apologetic about the expense: ‘If we just pursued efficiency,’ he said, ‘the world would become a very dry place, with no sensitivity.’”
The book is not only about Japan. It is also very good on Indonesia, Thailand, India and China. The authors’ conclusion – pursued through anecdotes – is that non-Japan Asia is too “ruthless” a place to fail. This is rather a double-edged compliment.
The book is full of interesting statistics and has a very broad and enlightened view of history. The demographics are also enlightening. Did you know if Japan keeps up its current fertility rate its population in 3000 will be 145,000?
For this reason, they predict that Japan has seen its peak and like post-war Britain is entering a period of decline, or leveling off. They predict a tri-polar world dominated by China, India and the US.
Their broad conclusion is that it will be an Asian century, and that as with most of recorded history - where up until the last 200 years, Asia controlled the majority of the world's GDP - Asia will return to predominance. Their view is summed up by the their concluding remark: "America and Europe will still be important...but at some point economic primacy is likely to return to Asia after a five hundred year absence."
Reviewed by Steven Irvine
