Introduction to the Book

Abstract

This chapter consists of three sections. The first section introduces the book’s overarching aims and scope, and it outlines the key concepts used in the analysis, explaining why the focus is on China and Japan. It explains how the three Parts of the book relate to each other and how the book amounts to more than the sum of its parts. The second section provides brief summaries of the chapters in the rest of the book, and the third section gives the authors’ justification for two outsiders to engage in what is a highly political and personal relationship in this way.