Today, with Japan holding second place in global wealth and continuing to expand her economy, the focus is all too readily concentrated on the processes of wealth creation, as well as economic and financial management - both domestically and internationally. What is often missing in the analysis is an understanding of the origins of Japan's rise to her superstate position.

Charting the spectacular rise of a society which leapt in little more than a generation from late feudal to early industrial forms of organisation, this history of modern Japan examines the violent 1930s, an Empire won and lost, and the economic miracle.