What is the secret to Japan s success? How can we explain that a poor and overcrowded archipelago is today an industrial and financial superpower? Sociologist S. Trinh answers this question by dissecting the structures and functions of a country which favors perpetual change, dynamism, collective mobilization and efficiency in the service of long term goals. In Japan, economical action is supported by each and every citizen to become the cement and the motor of society itself. Can Japan s system serve as a model to the world?