Eastern rising

A detailed, well presented description of the development of a globally
competitive industry from its 19th-century beginnings, Martin Fransman’s
Japan’s Computer and Communications Industry (Oxford University Press,
£30, ISBN 0 19 823333 7) covers the interaction of technologies,
organisations, firms, industries, government policies and institutions. A
valuable source book showing how Japanese companies have successively absorbed
waves of new technology, improved their products and entered new markets.