Michael Crichton's RISING SUN and what the US failed to learn from Japan: a thread 🧵
Michael Crichton’s RISING SUN made an immediate impact shortly after publication in January 1992. It was instantly controversial, with detractors calling the novel everything from inaccurate, to didactic, to fear-mongering, to racist.
The novel concerns a murder-conspiracy inside a Japanese corporation in Los Angeles. Two detectives are tasked with unraveling the conspiracy. Along the way the reader learns more and more about Japanese culture & business practices as the duo piece the mystery together.
One of Crichton’s main points in the novel is that Japanese corporations - and by extension Japanese people - are only interested in helping the Japanese by any means necessary. Including murder.
Unsurprisingly, certain media outlets as well as Japanese/Asian-American activist groups were outraged that someone would ever suggest that the Japanese are only interested in helping the Japanese.
Many demanded that RISING SUN be taken off shelves and protested against the novel and the subsequent film adaptation. Crichton was quickly labelled a racist. Activist Guy Aoki (pictured) was one of the most vocal opponents of the work.
MC: "The initial response from the (🇯🇵) establishment was, 'You're a racist,’ So then, because I'm always trying to deal with data, I went on a tour talking about it and gave a very careful argument, and their response came back, 'Well you say that but we know you're a racist.'"
There were also criticisms directed at the idea that the Japanese are taking over the US. They claimed Crichton’s concerns were misplaced as Japan’s economic heyday was slowing down as their “Lost Decade” approached.
These criticisms miss the point of Crichton’s message. It’s not about Japan’s economy, or the supposed Japanese takeover of the US, or as an attack on the Japanese people...
It’s about America losing its identity and contrasting that with Japan - which is a country conscious of its identity where the people are collectively in control of their destiny.
Decay caused largely by third-world influence has sedated the American collective consciousness creating a stagnant, dying world power. Asian countries like Japan have become advanced in the ways the US used to be as Crichton explains in this interview:
Crichton infers throughout the novel that Japan is a country whose corporations are the economic extensions of the Japanese racial consciousness. In other words, Japanese corporations operate first and foremost for the benefit of the Japanese people.
Crichton sees this as the primary reason Japan has been so successful and why the United States has fallen so far behind them. The Japanese corporate ethos is something Crichton (on some level at least) wishes the US could emulate.
That corporate ethos has evolved over time, but the values can be traced back before the Meiji Restoration period with the rise of Zaibatsus.
Zaibatsus are family-controlled conglomerates with a holding company at the top of the hierarchy. Zaibatsus had their own banking system and a network of subsidiary companies that would partly dominate certain markets.
The structures and history of the Zaibatsus are worthy of their own thread, but to put it succinctly, these conglomerates created the system that allowed Japan to enrich itself culturally and economically by putting value on the familial collective as opposed to the individual.
Companies serve as a sort of extended family for the Japanese. For example, there is a social obligation to mingle with your coworkers after hours. Supervisors are like parental figures and are expected to be treated with the same respect you would treat your actual parents.
Zaibatsus and their subsidiary companies were a fusion of traditional Japanese aristocratic values and modern business savvy - allowing Japan to dominate the global market without compromising their cultural integrity.
It’s no wonder how two decades after WWII, Japan became the second largest economy in the world - a position they would hold from the late 60s until the early 2010s. The “Japanese Economic Miracle" made Japan a global leader in dozens of crucial industries overnight.
The success of this model speaks for itself: Japan is home to over 100k companies that have been in business for over a century and hundreds that have been in business since the 1500s. The oldest company in the world is Japanese and has been family run since 578 AD.
The success of the Japanese in the postwar era came as a shock to most westerners. By the 1970s, many academics and economists were predicting Japan usurping the United States as the dominant global power.
Ezra Vogel was one such academic. And his 1979 book “Japan as Number One: Lessons for America” outlines the reasons for Japan’s surge. Vogel cites Japanese social cohesion and aforementioned cultural values as leading factors in their strong, dynamic economy.
By the 1980s, Japanese businessmen buying large amounts of land and companies abroad was so common it became a stereotype. There was a sense that the Japanese really were taking over the world during the 1980s. Even films like DIE HARD reflected this phenomenon.
Japan took over electronics, computing, and automobiles in the US. American companies failing at the behest of Japanese brands like Sony, Canon, Toshiba, and Honda. These brands became synonymous with quality while American ones became synonymous with mediocrity.
Americans were blindsided by Japanese ruthlessness. Social instability, economic disasters, and terrible immigration policies during the postwar era led the US to cultural ruin.
RISING SUN is dated only if you’re looking at it as a warning against Japanese aggression. Zooming out gives the reader a greater perspective. What Crichton was saying is truer today than it was in 1992.
Many Americans viewed this as a conspiracy - Japan subverting the US for its own benefit. A notion which Crichton was quick to dispel in the novel. The US failed to adapt to the changing world. Americans fell victim to their own perception of greatness.
The book ends with a short afterward essay where Crichton speaks about America’s hubris getting in the way of its success. Success isn’t beautiful. It’s ruthless. Americans aren’t ruthless anymore.
The US has lost its racial consciousness - the US isn’t ruthless anymore. We defaulted on self-destruction, and it’s been exploited for the benefit of other nations ever since. Japan is not the first nation nor will be the last nation to exploit this weakness.
I'd like to thank Unknown Historian for helping me with the sources for this thread. If he ever reactivates you guys should check out his thread on the Meiji restoration. A very knowledgable friend!
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