Masao Miyoshi, in Raritan (Fall 1989), Rutgers University, 165 College Ave., New Brunswick,
N.J. 08903.
The written word is not faring well in Ja- als begin congratulating themselves, pan. But the problem is not that the mass Miyoshi cautions that they too have suc- of Japanese are badly schooled or illiter- cumbed to a form of "conversationalism": ate, writes Miyoshi, a professor of litera- the endless chatter of meetings, confer- ture at the University of California, San ences, and...