AS she waited two and a half hours to board her return flight to Jakarta from Tokyo, Sri Mulyani Indrawati came to Maruzen Bookstore near Tokyo Station. It was Tuesday evening, February 14, and the Indonesian finance minister had just been in a bilateral meeting with her Japanese counterpart Shun’ichi Suzuki.

Maruzen is one of the biggest bookstores in Tokyo that has a dedicated floor for books written in English. “The moment I enter