"Postwar Japan has experienced success in reconstructing a war-ravaged nation, raising living standards, renovating democracy, taming militarism and rejoining the community of nations. This far-reaching rehabilitation of Japan marks an extraordinary achievement and has led to significant advances in the lives of Japan’s citizens. It is stunning that despite this whirlwind of tumultuous and deracinating transformation, Japan has preserved and augmented its social capital and avoided the worst of the scourges that plague other advanced industrialized nations. The relative absence of deep cleavages in society, the highly developed sense of community and success in containing the dislocation and social ills and modernization are a source of considerable strength in Japan. People are better housed, better educated, healthier, live longer and are, by virtually any yardstick, better off than their predecessors and most other people in the world. They have enjoyed political stability, economic security, low crime, good health care, decent schools, adequate housing and an extraordinary level of public politesse.