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Whether you are going to Japan on business, to study, to teach or simply on vacation, you know that you are going to a country which really does merit the title unique. This traveller's history not only offers the reader a chronological outline of the nation's development but also provides a valuable introduction to its language, literature and arts, from kabuki to karaoke. Political, social and industrial history and economics are also well covered; this clearly written history explains how a country embedded in the traditions of Shinto, Shoguns and Samurai achieve stupendous economic growth in the 20th century only to lose its way at the turn of the millennium.