Book: T.R. Reid, Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us About Living in the West (1999)
What are "Asian values"? T.R. Reid and his family spent five years living in Japan for his job as head of the Washington Post's Tokyo bureau. This book is his explication of how Japan has developed as a nation built on a Confucian model and how that contrasts with Western society. Essentially, Japanese society has been set up to form its members in a Confucian milieu, and the Japanese then perpetuate that formation through their actions. Most enchanting to me was the chapter devoted to Yodobashi No. 6 Elementary School, the Japanese grade school where his two daughters studied for three years. Certainly Japanese education is not the wholly rote experience I had thought it was. I highly recommend this book for those interested in Japan and Asia, and also for those who would like to see how a successful society could be organized in many ways better than the U.S.
