The riddle of Japanese power

Karel Van Silmin (1941-), Dutch journalist and political scientist. From the age of 18 he traveled to the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia: since 1962 he taught English in Japan. In 1972, he became a correspondent of the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad in Japan, where he lived for more than thirty years, preparing reports also from many Asian countries. In 1987, he received the Dutch journalistic Association for articles on political and social development in the region, in particular - for covering the events of the revolution in the Philippines. Since 1997, a professor of comparative political science and economics of the University of Amsterdam. The author of the well-known book “The Enigma of Japanese Power” was written 1986-88), translated into all the main languages ​​of the world, one of the most serious descriptions of the functioning of the Japanese political and economic system. In recent years, he has been engaged in the research of US policy: George W. Bush and the Destruption of World Order, 2003, Een Keer-Punt in the de Vaderlandse Geschiedenis /Twist moment in national history /, Meulenhoff, 2005