Karel van Wolferen

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Karel van Wolferen (born 1941) is a Dutch journalist, writer and professor, who is particularly recognised for his knowledge of Japanese politics, economics, history and culture.

He currently serves as a University Professor of Comparative Political and Economic Institutions at the University of Amsterdam.

After finishing high school, he travelled to the Middle East, India and South East Asia and from 1962 he taught English in Japan. In 1972 he bacame a correspondent for the Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad in Japan, where he lived for 38 years, reporting from many countries in Asia. In 1987 he received the price for Dutch journalism for his articles on political and social developments in the region.

He is the author of the much acclaimed The Enigma of Japanese Power, a political rather than cultural analysis on Japan that sold over 100.000 copies in the Netherlands alone, and several works (in English, Japanese and Dutch) on political and economic subjects.

His focus has recently shifted towards the United States, resulting in highly critical writings about the foreign policy of George W. Bush, as laid down in the book A turning point in national history (Een keerpunt in de vaderlandse geschiedenis).

[edit] Works

The Enigma of Japanese Power, Vintage, 1990, ISBN 0-679-72802-3
George W. Bush and the destruction of world order, Contact, 2003 ISBN 90-254-1880-5
Een keerpunt in de vaderlandse geschiedenis (A turning point in national history), Meulenhoff, 2005, ISBN 90-290-7698-4 (in Dutch)