Karel van Wolferen

Karel van Wolferen (born 1941) is a Dutch journalist, writer and professor, who is particularly recognised for his knowledge of Japanese, politics, economics, history and culture.[1][2]

Career as journalist, writer and academic

After finishing high school, he traveled to the Middle East, India and South East Asia, and from 1962 to the 1990s, he was based in Japan. In 1972, he became a correspondent for the Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad, reporting from many countries in Asia. In 1987, he received the highest Dutch award for journalism for his articles on the People Power Revolution of 1986 in the Philippines[3] (an uprising that forced President Ferdinand Marcos to flee the country).

His book writing career began in 1969, when he was commissioned to do a study on student radicalism in the West.[4] The result was published as Student Revolutionaries of the Sixties, reviewed by the International Herald Tribune as "the best introduction to the subject".[4]

After a career as foreign correspondent, he wrote The Enigma of Japanese Power, first published in 1989, which has sold well over 650,000 copies in 11 languages.[5][6] In Japan this book received enormous attention.[5][6][7] The Asahi Shimbun called it "an elaborate and persuasive study, sharply and careful analyzing a multitude of aspects of Japanese reality". The Financial Times wrote, "This most thoughtful of books works because it is serious, well informed and, above all, objective".[8]

Since writing Enigma, van Wolferen has authored more than 15 books published in Japanese that explore details of political, economic, social and historical aspects of the Japanese power system. His books have sold more than one million copies altogether.[5] His analyses and policy suggestions have influenced Japanese critics and policymakers,[6] including the reformist politicians who emerged after the election upset in 1993. Some of the same politicians now form the core of the Democratic Party of Japan that won elections in 2009.

He was made University Professor of Comparative Political and Economic Institutions at the University of Amsterdam in 1997.[2] Since then he has continued to write books and articles for Japanese readers. He divides his time between East Asia and the Netherlands.

Presentation of Een keerpunt in de vaderlandse geschiedenis at the University of Amsterdam (left to right: former PM Dries van Agt, author Karel van Wolferen and political researcher Giles Scott-Smith).

In 2005, together with NRC Handelsblad reporter Jan Sampiemon, Van Wolferen wrote Een keerpunt in de vaderlandse geschiedenis (Dutch: "A turning point in the history of the fatherland"). Its secondary title is "A manifesto to the Dutch people".

Despite the 'fatherland' in the title referring to the Netherlands, the book is mostly about the changes in the foreign policies of the United States since the presidency of George W. Bush and its effects on the Atlantic Alliance.

Political views since the 1990s

Van Wolferen rejects the global political role of the US since the 1990s and criticizes, particularly in the Ukraine crisis, both the lack of objectivity and independence of European countries and the coordination of the media in their adaptation to the political objectives of the United States.[9][10]

Published books

Translated Dutch title: Eyewitness Account of a Remarkable Turn: The Revolution from Marcos to Aquino – 1987, NRC Handelsblad

English title: The Enigma of Japanese Power – 1989, Alfred A. Knopf

Translated Japanese title: What to do with Japan!? Before giving up, examining 144 issues – 1991, Hayakawa Shobō (Japanese translation by Masaru Shinohara)

English title: Keeping the People Ignorant: The Hidden Agenda of Japanese Bureaucrats and News Papers – 1994, Shōgakukan (Japanese translation by Masaru Shinohara)

English title: The False Realities of a Politicized Society – 1994, Mainichi Shinbun Sha (Japanese translation by Masaru Shinohara)

English title: To the Japanese intellectuals – 1995, Mado Sha (Japanese translation by Hiroshi Nishioka, Yasuo Nakamura and Masaru Shinohara)

English title: How to Control Japanese Power Holders; The Election and What Comes After It – 1996, Mainichi Shinbun Sha (Japanese translation by Susumu Ōhara)

English title: Why Can’t the Japanese Love Japan? The Direction this Unhappy Country is headed – 1998, Mainichi Shinbun Sha (Japanese translation by Susumu Ōhara)

English title: Bourgeoisie - The Missing Element in Japanese Political Culture – 1999, Mainichi Shinbun Sha (Japanese translation by Chikara Suzuki)

Translated Japanese title: The absurd system that makes the United States happy and the rest of the world miserable – 2000, Daiyamondo Sha (Japanese translation by

Norimasa Fukushima)

English title: Can Japanese People Control Their Own Fate? – 2001, Kadokawa Shoten (Japanese translation by Kiyomi Fujii)

English title: Japanese Kaleidoscope – 2001, Prejidento Sha (Japanese translation by Kiyomi Fujii)

Translated Japanese title: Japanese Economics Made Easy with Professor Van Wolferen – 2002, Daiyamondo Sha (Japanese translation by Kiyomi Fujii)

English title: George W. Bush and the Destruction of World Order – 2003, PHP Kenkyūsho (Japanese translation by Kiyomi Fujii)

English title: Genuine Japanese Independence - A Necessity! – 2003, Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha

English title: The Day When the Future of the World will be Decided - How the Outcome of the United States Presidential Election will Shape the World – 2004, Kadokawa

Shoten (Japanese translation by Junko Kawakami)

English title: The Day that the World Can Take Japan Seriously Again – Japan no longer needs to be an American dependency – 2005, PHP Kenkyūsho (Japanese

translation by Kiyomi Fujii)

Translated Japanese title: The age of the 3 million yen annual income - A discussion on how the Japanese people can attain happiness – 2005, Daiyamondo Sha

Translated Dutch title: A Turning-Point in National History – 2005, J.M. Meulenhoff – Amsterdam

Translated Japanese title: The Deceit and Destruction of the System called Japan - A Nation of Worker Ants deprived of Happiness – 2006, Tokuma Shoten

English title: Sakoku by other means - Japan will become isolated from the world – 2006, Kadokawa Shoten (Japanese translation by Minoru Inoue)

English title: The end of American Hegemony – 2007, Tokuma Shoten (Japanese translation by Minoru Inoue)

English title: America’s Tragedy and the Blind Free World – 2010, Tokuma Shoten (Japanese translation by Minoru Inoue)

English title: The Character Assassination of Ozawa Ichiro – 2011, Kadokawa Shoten (Japanese translation by Minoru Inoue)

Translated Japanese title: Has this country lost its marbles? – 2012, Seishi Sha

English title: The Five Traps Surrounding Japan – 2012, Kadokawa Shoten (Japanese translation by Minoru Inoue)

English title: The Character Assassination of Osawa Ichiro (Edited and supplemented reprint of the 2011 original edition) – 2012, Kadokawa Shoten (Japanese translation by

Minoru Inoue)

English title: The False Realities of a Politicized Society (Edited, supplemented and retranslated reprint of the 1994 original edition) – 2012, Kadokawa Sofia Bunko (Japanese

translation by Minoru Inoue)

Translated Japanese title: Contemplating on independence - The United States doesn’t protect Japan – 2013, Kadokawa Gakugei Shuppan

English title: Political Monsters in and around Abe’s Japan – 2014, Kadokawa Gakugei Shuppan (Japanese translation by Minoru Inoue)

English title: Fake Post-war of Japan – 2014, Kadokawa Gakugei Shuppan

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ http://japanfocus.org/-Karel_van-Wolferen/3155
  2. 1 2 http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_44/b3705126.htm
  3. ↑ "About the Author", The Enigma of Japanese Power, Vintage Books, New York 1990
  4. 1 2 http://www.speakerideas.com/documentenmap/pdf/Karel_van_Wolferen.pdf
  5. 1 2 3 http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070506x1.html
  6. 1 2 3 http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_44/b3705125.htm
  7. ↑ http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-plank/new-hope-japan-why-i-think-it-could-finally-start-acting-real-democracy
  8. ↑ The Enigma of Japanese Power (cover), Vintage Books, New York, 1990
  9. ↑ http://www.nachdenkseiten.de/upload/pdf/20140814_vanWolferen_TheUkraine_de.pdf
  10. ↑ http://scotthorton.org/interviews/2014/08/15/081514-karel-van-wolferen/

External links

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