This is not the "Japan" with which I was raised: A renascent Postwar Japan that grew from a producer of cheap goods to an economic powerhouse that seemed on the verge of 'buying America,' or at least California, in the 1980s; a land of bland salarymen and equally docile labor unions (after socialist ambitions were broken in the 1950s); of marginalized women forces to quit the labor force, move to the suburbs, and reproduce themselves; of a GNP that knew no demand of defense spending under the US nuclear umbrella; of an economic engine granted free access to American markets in return for supporting US foreign policy; a land for which each year meant rising wealth while demanding yet harder work so as to never slip back to the privations of the postwar era; has all slipped into another realm. The changes that this young authoress flags will not soon be offset by upticks in, say, Asia trade boom boosts Japan Inc. Japan cannot now be certain of US support and China has emerged as both an economic and political competitor with demonstrated nuclear ambitions.

Just 20, She Captures Altered Japan in a Debut Novel
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
March 27, 2004
New York Times