"Japanese architecture and design acquired international prominence in the so-called "bubble-economy" era of the 1980s. Japanese products - from automobiles to electronic equipmentwere sold in record numbers the world over, and Japanese brand names became synonymous with high quality." "Now that the boom of the 1980s has given way to a recession, what is the country's designed and built environment like, and what are the factors that determine it? This attractive volume and the traveling exhibition it accompanies seek to address these questions. Essays written by experts in their fields are accompanied by impressive color plates to present Japanese architecture and design of the 1990s to a Western readership for the first time."