Modern Japan is one of the most enigmatic and intriguing countries in the world. A highly sophisticated society and an economic and technological superpower, Japan has maintained many aspects of its traditional values and lifestyle well into the twenty-first century. Part of the mystique of Japan lays in the fact that even though it has been officially open to the World for over a century and a half, Japan is still a very insular society. Not many people in the West get to travel to Japan, and Japanese popular culture (with few notable exceptions) is not all that familiar to Western audiences. In light of that, it is very helpful to get a better sense of Japan from a very authoritative short introduction such as this one.

The book is arranged chronologically, and starts with a brief history of Japan prior to its opening up and modernization in the nineteenth century. It proceeds with the arrival of commodore Perry and the subsequent Meiji restoration. The book is good in that it doesn't reinforce the conventional wisdom on these events, but it tries to give its own much more nuanced analysis of these events. Likewise, most of the twentieth century Japanese history is presented from a critical angle that tries to take into the account Japan's own perception and understanding of those events.

One of the particularly pleasing traits of this book is the attention that it gives to cultural and artistic developments. Many of Japan's most famous writers and artists have been spotlighted. However, I would have also liked if the book mentioned some of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century like Yukawa and Tomonaga, who have helped put Japanese science in the World map.

One problem that I have with the book is that in its effort to adopt the scholarly naming conventions it oftentimes makes the names of some Japanese historical figures unnecessarily confusing. Thus, Japanese emperor during WWII, who is known to the generations of westerners as Emperor Hirohito, is consistently referred to as Emperor Sowa. Likewise, the book also uses the convention in which surnames precede given names. This may be the correct way of rendering them and probably in line with Japanese convention, but to those of us who have been acquainted with Japanese cultural icons for many years it sounds quite a bit strange.

Overall, this is an interesting and informative book on Modern Japan. It is a very helpful first step in getting oneself acquainted with this fascinating country and its culture.

现代日本是世界上最神秘和最引人入胜的国家之一。作为一个高度成熟的社会和一个经济和技术超级大国，日本在二十一世纪仍然保持着其传统价值观和生活方式的许多方面。日本的神秘性部分在于这样一个事实：即使它已经正式向世界开放了一个半世纪，日本仍然是一个非常封闭的社会。西方没有多少人能够去日本旅行，日本的流行文化（除了少数明显的例外）对西方观众来说也不是那么熟悉。有鉴于此，通过像本书这样非常权威的简短介绍来更好地了解日本是非常有帮助的。

该书按时间顺序排列，从19世纪日本开放和现代化之前的简要历史开始。接着是佩里准将的到来和随后的明治维新。这本书的好处在于，它没有强化关于这些事件的传统智慧，而是试图对这些事件做出自己的更为细致的分析。同样，大部分二十世纪的日本历史都是从一个批判的角度来介绍的，试图考虑到日本自己对这些事件的看法和理解。

本书特别令人高兴的特点之一是它对文化和艺术发展的关注。许多日本最有名的作家和艺术家都受到了关注。然而，我还希望这本书能提到二十世纪一些最伟大的科学家，如汤川和富永，他们帮助日本科学在世界地图上留下了痕迹。

我对这本书的一个问题是，在努力采用学术界的命名惯例时，它经常使一些日本历史人物的名字变得不必要的混乱。因此，二战期间的日本天皇，即西方人所熟知的裕仁天皇，一直被称为佐和天皇。同样，该书也采用了姓在名前的惯例。这可能是正确的表述方式，而且可能符合日本的惯例，但对于我们这些已经熟悉日本文化符号多年的人来说，这听起来有点奇怪。

总的来说，这是一本关于现代日本的有趣且内容丰富的书。它是熟悉这个迷人的国家及其文化的第一步，非常有帮助。