This is a survey of every aspect of Japanese life, political and economic, social and psychological, unravelling the enigma of Japan in the modern world revealing that Japan's amassed wealth has brought little benefit to the ordinary Japanese. The author shows how the docile conformity , near absence of litigation and lack of individualism - characterising Japanese society and culture - originates in political purpose. Japan has the institutions of a parliamentary democracy, yet is effectively a one-party state and the power of the Japanese prime minister is less than that of any other head of government in Asia or the West. Japan is governed to all appearances with no centre of accountable power. Karl van Wolferen has lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in Japan for some quarter of a century. Last year he won the Dutch equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.