Yoshiro Miwa J. Mark Ramseyer We are honored -- deeply honored -- to receive the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize. As is obvious from its title, our book aggressively challenges the received wisdom about Japan and the Japanese economy. To receive the Ohira Prize for this work is a joy to us, and an encouragement to the many others who have supported us through the years. To the men and women on the selection committee and at the Foundation who made this possible, we express our heartfelt thanks. Knowing the Prize is for youngish scholars, we admit to being a bit surprised. Of course, in our field scholars do publish in specialty journals, and the process is painstakingly slow. If we see this book as integrating the many articles we published over the past decade, then perhaps the Prize reflects work we did while still young. Given that we began collaborating because of related work that we had each done before, perhaps it reflects work done even earlier. Still, if we are indeed receiving this Prize for work we did long ago, we would like to think it includes an admonition too: Don't stop now. All "societies" -- whether countries, regions, or firms -- tend to think of themselves as special and to stress their distinctiveness. In Japan, this tendency dates back to the years before the war, perhaps even to the years before the Meiji Restoration. Non-Japanese (particularly those from the U.S. and Europe) have played into this tendency by bringing to the study of Japan a fascination with the exotic, and that fascination has driven them to look for differences. For decades now, and among both Japanese and non-Japanese scholars, the notion that Japan (its society, economy, firms, and people) differs fundamentally has dominated the field. Emblematic of this Japan-is-different approach has been the notion of a "Japanese Company System." Captured by claims about "state-led-development" and the "keiretsu," the notion appears and reappears in a variety of guises, always maddeningly imprecise. Early in our careers, we had each worked separately to clarify and test these claims. Some ten years ago, we decided to join forces. After we had reached a substantial number of readers through our articles, we wrote this book to disseminate our results more broadly. Perhaps some day non-Japanese will tell their Japanese friends, "why are you still spouting that stuff about national distinctiveness? Here -- read this book." We hope so. We think this Prize will hasten that day. Thank you again for the honor.