“A century ago, when Admiral Perry’s American fleet opened the nation, Japan was a feudal society. The Japanese realized they had to change, and they did. Starting in the 1860s, they brought in thousands of Western specialists to advise them on how to change their government and their industries. The entire society underwent a revolution. There was a second convulsion, equally dramatic, after World War II.”

Michael Crichton, Rising Sun

“Japan is not a Western industrial state; it is organized quite differently. And the Japanese have invented a new kind of trade – adversarial trade, trade like war, trade intended to wipe out the competition – which America has failed to understand for several decades.”

Michael Crichton, Rising Sun

“Sooner or later, the United States must come to grips with the fact that Japan has become the leading industrial nation in the world. The Japanese have the longest lifespam. They have the highest employment, the highest literacy, the smallest gap between rich and poor. Their manufactured products have the highest quality. They have the best food.”

Michael Crichton, Rising Sun

“And living in Japan… I just got tired, after a while, of the way things worked. I got tired of seeing women move to the other side of the street when they saw me walking toward them at night. I got tired of noticing that the last two seats to be occupied on the subway were the ones on either side of me. I got tired of the airline stewardess asking Japanese passengers if they minded sitting next to a gaijin, assuming that I couldn’t understand what they were saying because they were speaking Japanese. I got tired of the exclusion, the subtle patronizing, the jokes behind my back. I got tired of being a nigger.”

Michael Crichton, Rising Sun

“Most people who lived in Japan come away with mixed feelings. In many ways, the Japanese are wonderful people. They’re hardworking, intelligent, and humorous. They have real integrity. They are also the most racist people on the planet. That’s why they’re always accusing everybody else of racism. They’re so prejudiced, they assume everybody else must be, too.”

Michael Crichton, Rising Sun

“Americans don’t understand. Because the Japanese system is fundamentally different.”

Michael Crichton, Rising Sun

“Since 1987, there have been a hundred and eighty American high-tech and electronics companies bought by the Japanese.”

Michael Crichton, Rising Sun

“You probably know that their Zen monks are expected to write a poem close to the moment of death. It’s a very traditional art form, and the most famous poems are still quoted hundreds of years later. So you can imagine, there’s a lot of pressure on a Zen roshi when he knows he’s nearing death and everyone expects him to come up with a great poem.”

Michael Crichton, Rising Sun

“They have very sophisticated mapping software. It’s by far the most advanced in the world. The Japanese are becoming much better in software. Soon they will surpass the Americans in that, as they already have in computers.”

Michael Crichton, Rising Sun

“In Japan, the land where everyone is supposedly equal, no one speaks on burakumin. But before a marriage, a young man’s family will check the family history of the bride, to be sure there are no burakumin in the past. The bride’s family will do the same. And if there is any doubt, the marriage will not occur. The burakumin are the untouchables of Japan. The outcasts, the lowest of the low. They are the descendants of tanners and leather workers, which in Buddhism is unclean.”

Michael Crichton, Rising Sun

“You know, if you wanted to buy a Japanese company, you couldn’t do it. The people in the company would consider it shameful to be taken over by foreigners. It would be a disgrace. They would never allow it.”

Michael Crichton, Rising Sun

“Because the fact is, countries don’t like to be dominated. They don’t like to be occupied – economically or militarily.”

Michael Crichton, Rising Sun

“American news. Such nothing.”

Michael Crichton, Rising Sun