Since Japan has promoted IT more intensively than almost any other country, and is itself a leading producer, it is telling that actual implementation has been slow. Jane Bachnik and her colleagues find the reasons not just in bureaucracy and individual intransigence, but in deeper social contradictions. The analyses in this book not only inform our understanding of IT and of Japanese society, but illuminate the relationship between culture and the pressure for practical change in any context.

Craig Calhoun, Professor of Social Sciences, Arizona State University, USA

Don't be fooled by the title of this book. Although its theme is Japanese education, it is in fact much more: a far-reaching and critical analysis of the central "tensions"and "paradoxes" facing contemporary Japan-technology versus culture and social structure, plan versus implementation and results, individual versus organization and state, etc. Read this important book to understand the "roadblocks," both intentioned and unintentioned, that can impede social, political, and economic reform in Japan.

Glen S. Fukushima, President & CEO, Cadence Design Systems, Japan; Former President, American Chamber of Commerce in Japan; Former Director for