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Gavan McCormack. The Emptiness of Japanese Affluence. – Rev.ed. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2001. Pp. vii, 311.Price: Cloth $30.95. In this innovating novel, Gavan McCormack examines the dangers to Japan in three topics titled "Political Economy," "Identity," and "Memory." Much of the focus of the book is historical rather than social. McCormack does a great job of showing his purpose of constructive criticism on the issues of Japan. He clearly states his purpose of writing about the potential futures for Japan as an economic superpower in the rising world order, as well as the promising futures of the world with Japan as an example of the troubles with industrialization. The novel starts off with the devastating incident of the Kobe earthquake. McCormack describes horrid stories from that disaster. The author makes the tragic incident a symbol of the crisis of the determined commitment in Japan towards economic expansion. He shows a relationship of how the disaster could stand as a test of Japan’s capability to survive and prevail. McCormack compares the influential outcome of the construction state, or the Doken Kokka, to the military manufacturing compound “sucking in the country’s wealth, consuming it ineffic