An excellent overview regardless of your level of exposure to Japan.

Sugimoto sets the record straight on just what it means to be Japanese. By leveraging native resources and reference material, this is a thorough, well-rounded look at Japan from a myriad of levels, including cultural, economic, political, and demobraphic. At times I wished he'd dwell a bit longer on topics that particularly interested me, and at others I wished he'd skip ahead. But that's what an overview's all about. Now I need to find a book like this about where I'm from, so I can figure these weirdos out...