PREPARATION for a cover story such as this week's on Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi of Japan spans several continents and the work of men living and dead. In Japan, TIME's Tokyo bureau, headed by Correspondent Alex Campbell, filed 38,000 words based on interviews with Kishi, his friends, relatives and political opponents. From TIME's Washington bureau came facts and figures on U.S. investment in Japan, U.S. military opinion relating to Japan's defense, and U.S. estimates of the stability of Japan's economy. From the Hong Kong bureau came guidance on the Red Chinese attitudes toward Kishi and Japan, as well as accounts of the mixed feelings of the nations of Southeast Asia toward Japan's resurgence.

In Manhattan, TIME Associate Editor Robert McLaughlin and Researcher Irene Ertugrul met with economists and Japanese experts, conferred with Japanese diplomats, writers and historians, read books ranging from cultural treatises to military histories to immerse themselves in the hierarchic quality and other-worldish flavor of Japanese life. For TIME readers who would like to experience the Japanese essence at greater length, they recommend a partial bibliography:

The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (Houghton Mifflin; 1946) by Ruth Benedict. A brilliant tour de force written by a U.S. anthropologist who had never set foot in Japan, but who, through interviews, the study of antiquarian papers and Japan's own vast literature about itself, reached penetrating conclusions about Japanese society, its disciplines and its notions of good and evil.

Japan Since Perry (McGraw-Hill; 1949), by Chitoshi Yanaga, which has a textbook flavor, but offers a full and first-rate account of Japan from its opening to the West by the U.S. in 1853 to its occupation by U.S. troops after World War II.

Japan's Postwar Economy (Indiana University; 1958) by Jerome Cohen. A brief and crisply written analysis of Japan's revitalized economy and of the factors responsible.

Living Japan (Doubleday; 1959) by Donald Keene, associate professor of Japanese at Columbia University. A handsomely illustrated introduction to present-day Japanese life; an excellent guidebook for first visitors.

Meeting with Japan (Viking Press; 1960), by Fosco Maraini, invaluable not for statistics but for its intuitive thrusts by a highly intelligent Italian who has both deeply enjoyed and bitterly suffered (including wartime imprisonment) during ten years in Japan. Author Maraini is rare in that he can see the beauty of the land without blinking at its ugliness.

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