This book contains the text of the Marshall Lectures which were given at the University of Cambridge in March 1981. Prior to this, in February 1981, I delivered an even more abridged version of these lectures as the Suntory–Toyota Public Lecture at the London School of Economics.

The question first of all was whether or not Japan had been successful, but no country is likely to be successful in all respects. Moreover success in one respect is closely connected to failure in another, and success and failure are often achieved in conjunction with each other. The theme of the present work is to attempt to clarify those respects in which Japan has been successful, and those in which she has met with failure, and to ask why this has been the case. In no chapter of the book, however, have I presumed to lay down in any categorical manner my own solutions to these problems.

This is in part due to my belief that, although I have purposely not written anything in the nature of a summary or conclusion, what I am trying to say is likely to be quite clear to the reader. It is also due to my believing that there cannot be a single correct solution to this sort of problem; there can at the most only be various different views. One should therefore not expound one's own personal conclusions in any ostentatious manner or impose them upon others.