Stephen Alomes, ed. - Islands in the Stream: Australia and Japan Face Globalisation

Stephen Alomes, editor,

Islands in the Stream: Australia and Japan Face Globalisation

Hawthorn, Vic.: Maribyrnong Press, 2005.

Pp. vi + 145.    Paperback        ISBN  0 9752384 1 8

As a member of the Australian Studies department at Deakin University, and a former visiting professor in Tokyo, Stephen Alomes is well qualified to edit this collection, to which he contributes three of the eleven essays. Five contributors are based on Australian campuses, three at universities in Japan, and one in China. Topics discussed include sport and popular culture, historical memory and attitudes to globalisation. Alomes argues that Australia and Japan have more similarities, politically and socially, than might at first appear. For students of Australia, this book will be chiefly useful in illustrating attitudes towards Japan, and of course for the shafts of light that the essays throw upon assumptions about twenty-first century Australia itself.