It was a bit warmer out today, and while that made it a bit slippery I still was able to go on a shorter run and listen to books for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was "A Fractured Liberation" by Kornel Chang. I was familiar with the history of the US occupation of Japan, but much less so with our occupation of South Korea after WWII, and this book presents an in-depth, devastating view of the utter failure and moral bankruptcy of that endeavor. Chang follows the major players through the crucible years of this period, going across the country to illustrate massive problems with the military authority and how it could have played out differently (with Jeju Island being a useful counterfactual here). This is an urgent history, demonstrating how unprepared policies and policymakers can have catastrophic consequences. Highly recommend https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674258433

Last was "The Future is Foreign" by Hilary Holbrow. Japan is at the forefront of directly grappling with the implications of a declining population, and arguably nowhere do these implications become more pressing than when it comes to work. Specifically, effectively integrating foreigners and women into the workforce in a country that has traditionally been seen as inhospitable to both of those groups.

Through an impressive data collection effort across a dozen large, information-worker intensive firms, Hilary reveals the surprising reality of work for different groups, with non-Western foreigners faring relatively well (albeit still with gaps relative to their Japanese colleagues), and Western men actually still seeing superior outcomes to other groups. These biases are most apparent when it comes to gender differences, and the results here around representation in more front-line roles driving perceptions is extremely important.

This is a very academically-inclined book, which I love but is a personal preference. Beyond that the sample sizes for some of the categories analyzed here are smaller than I'd like for sweeping conclusions, although it's the best data we have at the moment.

Overall, this book is an essential look at how work, organizations, and careers will change as populations shrink in rich countries and they will come to rely more on immigration. The lessons learned here will very quickly need to be applied in other rich countries as they begin to catch up to Japan, ideally at an accelerated pace. Highly recommend https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501784354/the-future-is-foreign/