If you enjoy other Michael Crichton novels then Rising Sun will not disappoint. Similar to other Crichton novels, the real story is not contained solely among the central characters, but is within the underlying theme of the book. While Jurassic Park and Prey are cautionary tales about the ethics surrounding modern science and State of Fear concerns the overstatement of man's influence on global warming, Rising Sun is a study of the juxtaposition of Japanese & American cultures. In Rising Sun, Crichton asserts that Japan is draining America of its intellectual resources by systematically buying its most valuable companies while simultaneously closely guarding its own technology for economic gain over the United States and other developed countries. By essentially running a closed market economy, Crichton maintains that Japan is playing by a different set of rules than the United States and can use this to their advantage. For instance, Crichton remarks Japan is a large exporter to the United States of valuable finished goods such as consumer electronics, automobiles, and semiconductor chips. Conversely, Japan only imports raw materials from the U.S such as oranges and timber, believing their own finished goods to be superior to the U.S. or any other nations'. Additionally, Crichton remarks that Japan takes advantage of the U.S. higher educational system but, unlike other countries such as India and China, the American educated scientists and engineers return home to benefit Japanese engineers rather than American companies. Crichton also talks about the lack of reciprocity of the Japanese and American patent systems, allowing the Japanese to profit off of American inventions, while closely guarding their own trade secrets. An advantage one has in reading this 1992 novel in 2014 is the benefit of 22 years of hindsight. Crichton tends to be a bit of an alarmist by nature and would have had many a reader in 1992 convinced that Japan would soon overtake the U.S. and Europe as the technological super power of the world. While Japan still maintains a world leader in automobiles, batteries, and pharmaceuticals, the technology gap is not as wide as Crichton may have predicted in 1992. For instance, the GDP of the U.S. is still over 3x the size of the Japanese GDP in 2013. Of the top 20 semiconductor companies, only 3 are headquartered in Japan, while 11 are based in the U.S. Japan still maintains a sizeable advantage in automobile quality and technology, but American, German, and Korean auto manufacturers are all major players. In terms of semiconductor foundries, Japan is well behind other countries such as China, U.S., and Korea. Even in consumer electronics, flagship companies such as Sony, Panasonic, and Sharp have been significantly outproduced by companies such as Apple (US), LG (Korea), and Samsung (Korea). In summary, Crichton's novel is informative and entertaining; Crichton's factoids regarding Japanese business culture scattered throughout the book flow easily within the context of the story and give the reader a sense of enrichment while still remaining engaged with the central plot. However, Crichton appears to have gone too far in his prediction of Japanese domination over the U.S. and other countries, as the two decades following the book's publication have documented.
Michael Crichton- Rising Sun (Ballantine Books 1993) 3.75 StarsWhen a woman is murdered in the beautiful new Nakamoto Tower in L.A. at its grand opening, an investigation begins. Lieutenant Smith must now work with Captain Connor to dig through the lies and deceit to uncover the truth. Connor teaches him much about Japanese culture and helps him understand their actions. Just when they think that they are close to the truth they discover that once again they must weave through the maze of corruption and cover-ups. Can they solve the case before it ruins the lives of everyone involved?After reading Rising Sun I have decided that this is my favourite Crichton book. I loved the twists and turns that this book took. Crichton masterfully weaves around the truth, giving you glimpses of what might be reality, only to take a totally different path. I was on the edge of my seat for most of this novel. The characters were interesting as well, although I did not feel a great connection to any of them, but the main character. I enjoyed learning a little about Japanese culture and how much it differs from our own. One thing that I did not like was how there were long sections of information that could easily have been condensed to help the reader keep interest. These sections slowed down the pace and made me wonder why we really needed all the information we were given. I understand the desire to include all the information from your research, but as an author you need to resist this urge. I recommend Rising Sun to Crichton fans or anyone who loves a good thriller.For more of my reviews check out my website, www.tonypeters.webs.comTony PetersKids on a Case: The Case of the Ten Grand Kidnappinghttp://authortonypeters.blogspot.com/
What do You think about Rising Sun (2004)?
E' un romanzo sul comportamento economico del Giappone e sull'inadeguatezza della risposta americana. L'autore usa ripetere diverse scene nei suoi libri come l'incidente automobilistico in curva e l'eccessivo numero di avvocati che popolano l'America. Sembra essergli molto a cuore quest'ultimo argomento e sembra mancargli fantasia cercando di eliminare i personaggi con i soliti incidenti. Molti fatti erano prevedibili come la falsa morte di Sakamura o il suicidio del senatore Morton o la cassett
—Nippon
From the author whose most famous work is Jurassic Park comes a murder mystery that has as many twists and turns as your normal novel of the genre. The first half of the book is actually pretty good, with the murder in a corporate building that happens a floor above a party that the company is holding. It starts dragging once the social and political commentary comes front and center, and it doesn't recover until it is almost too late.The political commentary in question centers around the time when the Japanese were getting a major foothold into American economics in the 1980s. Those familiar with the situation will get the novel better, as it is a central point in this Michael Crichton novel that was written in 1993. Otherwise, the novel doesn't exactly age well, and the oversaturation of this issue takes away from the original point of the novel, which is the murder, something that gets largely pushed to the background for a fair amount of the story.The book gets a 2.5/5.
—Peter
In the 80s the big American fear, especially in California, was that the Japanese businesses were going to take over. Strangely, the fact that the Dutch and British had more holdings than the Japanese never mattered.That said, Japanese conspiracies were popular and this was one of the better ones, which also allowed us to perceive the Japanese manner of thinking.BTW, this book was better than the movie. Overally, a very good read but not great.For those who didn't see the movie a pair of American investigators are called in to investigate a murder connected with Japanese business. One of the investigators is very much "pro Japanese" and the other could care less. It's something of a Historical piece now but back in the 80s I'm sure some people felt the Japanese were going to get their revenge for WWII and buy America out. OVERALL GRADE: B to B plus.
—StoryTellerShannon
