Previously, Western scholars said that because of the pervasiveness of Confucian thinking, the East could not industrialize. When your Japan as Number One was published, everyone still thought that Japan did not have the right conditions to succeed--just look at the life-employment system: Without the threat of unemployment, how could employees go all out and business be competitive?
以前，西方學者說，因為儒家思想籠罩，東方不可能工業化；在您的「日本第一」剛出版時，一般還是認為日本成不了氣候﹘﹘光看它的「終身雇用制」就知道，沒有失業的威脅，員工怎麼會拚命？