Marxist economic thought has had a long and distinguished history in Japan, dating back to the First
World War. When interest in Marxist theory was virtually nonexistent in the United States, rival schools
of thought in Japan emerged, and brilliant debates took place on Marx's Capital and on capitalism as it
was developing in Japan. Forty years ago, Makoto Itoh's Value and Crisis began to chronicle these
Japanese contributions to Marxist theory, discussing in particular views on Marx's theories of value and
crisis, and problems of Marx's theory of market value. Now, in a second edition of his book, Itoh
deepens his study Marx's theories of value and crisis, as an essential reference point from which to
analyze the multiple crises that have arisen during the past four decades of neoliberalism.
One contribution of the original Value and Crisis was to bridge Japan and the world in the field of
Marxian political economy. Itoh's second edition demonstrates an even wider-ranging familiarity with
major schools of Marxist thought, summarizing and assessing viewpoints of such theorists as Hilferding,
Bauer, Kautsky, Bukharin, Luxemburg, Grossman, Sweezy, the Japanese Marxist Kozo Uno, together with
the relevant parts of Capital and a section on the 1930's Great Depression. Given today's current
emergencies of world capitalism and socialism, says Itoh, we need to work together to resolve new
global problems, articulating new issues of Marx's theories of value and crisis. The promise of Marx's
theories has not waned. If anything - given the failure of Soviet-style socialism and the catastrophe of
neoliberalism - it grows daily.