Science, Technology, and Society in Contemporary Japan (review)

Science, Technology, and Society in Contemporary Japan. By Morris Low, Shigeru Nakayama, and Hitoshi Yoshioka. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. xiii+226. $59.95/$19.95.

Like many books engaged with the politics and values of science and technology, this volume focuses on Japan's most recent past, and many readers will be pleased with its up-to-the-minute coverage. It takes as its largest theme the contribution of science and technology to economic growth and the well-being of the Japanese people. However, the book suggests that these two goals are often in conflict with one another, pointing out that what benefits local politicians, national bureaucrats, and big business often fails to serve the general public. In this it is squarely in the tradition of a scattering of books that attempt to count the social costs of Japan's rapid technological development.

The authors divide their book into four sections: the Japanese model of research and development; the role of science and technology in promoting economic growth; the international dimensions of science and technology; and government policy and social benefits. While it is not clear why these four particular areas were chosen, they do provide a springboard for the discussion of a broad range of topics, such as science cities, quality control, nuclear power, environmental policy, the FS-X/F-2 fighter plane, the export of Japanese technology to Asia, computer use and design, gender inequality, the construction of Narita Airport, and the doctor/patient relationship, among others.

The authors hope that this volume will bring a more informed appreciation of Japanese science and technology to readers who are beginning their exploration with images of Japan as imitative, resource-poor, militaristic, and dominated by central government control. Yet their aim is much higher than simply modifying Japan's popular image. This study builds on the framework provided by Shigeru Nakayama's Science, Technology and Society in Postwar Japan (1991), which analyzed science and technology in terms of the dynamics between academic, public, private, and citizen interests. In their book, Morris Low, Shigeru Nakayama, and Hitoshi Yoshioka argue that the lines separating these four social sectors have blurred, and yet these basic categories inform the analysis of each chapter. Anyone who begins the book with the simple notion of Japan as a monolithic entity will end with a very sophisticated understanding of how power and alliances are structured in Japanese society and mirrored in Japanese science and technology.

Here the repeated critique of the Japanese system is that the individual has little standing to influence the development and application of science and technology, and reaps few of the benefits of technological progress. As illustrated by such examples as the intransigence of the government in its decision to build Narita Airport despite public opposition, government policy is more likely to serve vested interests than promote an independent concept of the national good. Neither does the individual have much leverage in decisions concerning health care, where the technical authority of doctors allows them to routinely withhold diagnosis and prognosis from patients and to make treatment decisions independent of consultation. Aside from issues of control, the authors question whether individual citizens benefit from the established path of technological development--noting, for example, that computer usage is low and birth control is unavailable in Japan.

Those who want to explore the book for coverage of specific issues will find that each chapter can be read independently of the others. But the most striking thing about the narrative is its devotion to scholarship. The authors' viewpoint is modestly presented at the end of an analysis enriched by a discussion of the existing literature and supported by an excellent bibliography that is dominated by English-language sources. As a consequence, this study will be invaluable to scholars and graduate students but less likely to appeal to undergraduates. The authors of this provocative and knowledgeable book have succeeded admirably in their aim of raising the level...