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Japan's New World Role
by Joshua D. Katz Tilly C. Friedman-LichtscheinThis book aims to provide a glimpse into the vital debate among Japanese and Western scholars, policymakers, and private sector leaders concerning Japan's future course—a process with implications extending far beyond Japan to the entire world political system.
Japan's Options for the 1980s (Routledge Library Editions: Japan)
by Radha SinhaJapan’s economic success since the 1950s created a range of serious domestic and international problems which threaten the stability of the country. Within Japan at the start of the 1980s there was a strong mood on the right for remilitarization to give the nation the super-power status her economic performance justified. Outside Japan, there was increasing pressure from the West to make her conform to Western strategic interests. Against the background of these crucial issues the book analyzes the economic, political and military options open to Japan. Focussing on the interconnecting themes of foreign harassment and domestic economic disorder, the author points out many areas of similarity between Japan of the 1930s and Japan of the 1980s.
Japan's Outcaste Abolition: The Struggle for National Inclusion and the Making of the Modern State (Asia's Transformations)
by Noah Y. McCormackThe Tokugawa Shogunate, which governed Japan for two and a half centuries until the mid-1860s, classed people into hierarchically ranked status groups (mibun). The early Tokugawa rulers legally established these status groups through the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries, adapting and clarifying existing customary divisions between warriors, peasants, artisans, and merchants. Subsequently, during the two and a half centuries of Tokugawa rule, status laws backed by coercive force worked to limit social mobility between groups and regulate relations between people of different status. This book begins by examining the origins and evolution of the outcaste groups within the Tokugawa status order. It then looks into the complex processes leading up to the abolition of outcaste status and the institution of legal equality in 1871 under the Meiji regime, and analyzes subsequent practices and theories of social discrimination against firstly ‘former outcastes’ and ‘New Commoners’ and then ‘Burakumin’. Finally, it analyses the tactics and strategies of liberation adopted at local and national levels by anti-discrimination movements in Meiji Japan. Detailing the history of early-modern Japanese outcastes into the post-abolition era, Japan’s Outcaste Abolition explores the dynamics of national inclusion, social exclusion, and the making of disciplined modern subjects. It will therefore be of great interest to students and scholars of Japanese history, culture and society, social history and Asian studies.
Japan's Peace-Building Diplomacy in Asia: Seeking a More Active Political Role (Routledge Security in Asia Pacific Series)
by Peng Er LamThe conventional portrayal of Japan’s role in international affairs is of a passive political player which – despite its position as the world’s second largest economic power – punches below its weight on the world stage: its foreign policy driven by Washington, mercantilism and constrained by domestic pacifism. This book examines Japan’s emerging identity as an important participant in conflict prevention and peace-building in Southeast and South Asia, demonstrating that Japan has increasingly sought a positive and active political role commensurate with its economic pre-eminence. The book considers Japanese involvement in many of the region’s most serious recent conflicts: including Japan’s part in the brokering and maintaining of peace in Cambodia, which in 1992 saw the first dispatch of troops abroad by Tokyo since the end of World War II, and the attempts to bring peace to Aceh, Sri Lanka, East Timor and Mindanao. The Japanese example, when compared with other countries prominent in the fields of conflict prevention, suggests that Tokyo – given its pacifist strategic culture – relies on diplomacy and Official Development Assistance rather than peace enforcement through military means. Overall, this book provides a lucid appraisal of Japan’s overall foreign policy, as well as its new role in conflict prevention and peace-building - analysing the reasons behind this shift towards an active international role and assessing the degree of success it has enjoyed.
Japan's Political Warfare (Routledge Library Editions: Japan)
by Peter de MendelssohnAfter more than six years of active fighting in the Far East and over two years of open war between Japan and the Anglo-Saxon powers, Japanese political warfare was still a factor largely unknown in the Western world. Overshadowed by the much nearer and more closely felt exertions of the Nazi propaganda machine, it came to be regarded as too remote to have any noticeable bearing on the general course of the war. In the months leading up to Pearl Harbour, Tokyo Radio, the official Domei News Agency and the Japanese press jointly conducted an efficient war of nerves which, for all its alleged clumsiness effectively deceived many in Britain and the USA. The attack on Pearl Harbour showed how Tokyo’s political warfare achieved its object: the creation of a political smoke-screen. During the period of Japan’s conquests in 1942 following Pearl Harbour, and before that in China, Japan’s political warfare showed itself quite capable of producing useful results.The volume is divided into two parts: the first deals with machinery and methods and gives as full and detailed a survey of the various government organs directing and controlling political warfare, the structure of the Japanese press, the organisation of Japanese broadcasting, the functioning of censorship and the extent to which education, science, literature, the arts and the cinema are being employed for purposes of propaganda, both in the Japanese homeland and in the wider area of the conquered empire. The second part deals with the aims and policies of Japanese propaganda, and attempts to give an outline of the way in which the machinery is being operated. It includes an analysis of the main groups of standard slogans and catchphrases which recur everywhere in Japanese propaganda and a special chapter is devoted to the use made of religion for purposes of political warfare.
Japan's Politics and Economy: Perspectives on change (European Institute of Japanese Studies East Asian Economics and Business Series)
by Marie SöderbergFor some time Japan has been under fire for adjusting too slowly to new realities. While this criticism may be valid on some levels, Japan has been transforming in tandem with both regional and global forces. However, these changes have been largely overshadowed by the immense changes in Asia; including the rise of China, the 1997 Southeast Asian financial crisis and North Korea's development of nuclear weapons. Has Japan, the world's second largest economy, only been muddling through? In this volume the contributors show that although the challenges faced are great, Japan is changing in areas ranging from political leadership, education policy, official development assistance, peace building and security, to defence production, business associations and innovation policy. The book analyses processes of change, focusing on the dynamics of change - rather than structural change or institutional change per se - from four levels: the individual, domestic, regional and global. Forces from outside Japan, such as a changing world order and changes in power relationships in Asia, have driven change along with pressures emerging within Japan, such as the increasing power of public opinion and competitiveness within markets. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of Japanese and Asian Studies, Politics, International Relations, Globalization, Business and Economics.
Japan’s Population Implosion
by Yoichi FunabashiThis cutting edge collection examines Japan's population issue, exploring how declining demographic trends are affecting Japan's social structure, specifically in the context of Greater Tokyo, life infrastructure, public finance and the economy. Considering the failures of past Japanese policies from the perspective of population, national land, and politics, it argues that the inability of past administrations to develop a long-term and comprehensive policy has exacerbated the population crisis. This text identifies key negative chain reactions that have stemmed from this policy failure, notably the effect of population decline on future economic growth and public finances and the impact of shrinking municipalities on social and community infrastructure to support quality of life. It also highlights how population decline can precipitate inter-generational conflict, and impact on the strength of the state and more widely on Japan's international status. Japan is on the forefront of the population problem, which is expected to affect many of the world's advanced industrial economies in the 21st century. Based on the study of policy failures, this book makes recommendations for effective population policy - covering both 'mitigation' measures to encourage a recovery in the depopulation process as well as 'adaptation' measures to maintain and improve living standards - and provides key insights into dealing with the debilitating effects of population decline.
Japan's Postwar (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies)
by Michael Lucken Anne Bayard-Sakai Emmanuel Lozerand J. A. A. StockwinHistorical surveys of postwar Japan are usually established on the grounds that the era is already over, interpreting "postwar" to be the years directly proceeding World War II. However, the contributors to this book take a unique approach to the concept of the postwar epoch and treat it as a network of historical time frames from the modern period, and connect these time capsules to the war to which they are inextricably linked. The books strength is in its very interdisciplinary approach to examining postwar Japan and as such it includes chapters centred on subjects as diverse as politics, poetry, philosophy, economics and art which serve to fill the blanks in the collective cultural memory that historical narratives leave behind. Originally published in French, this new translation offers the English speaking world important access to a major work on Japan which has been greatly enriched by the translator’s great accuracy and knowledge of English, French and Japanese language, history and culture. Japan's Postwar will appeal to students and scholars of Japanese Studies and Modern Japanese History as well as historians studying the world after 1945.
Japan's Postwar Economic Recovery and Anglo-Japanese Relations, 1948-1962 (Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia)
by Noriko YokoiEver since Japan's economy recovered in the 1960s, scholars have been searching for the reasons for its meteoric postwar success. Until now, much research has been based on the study of Japan's society, its political and economic infrastructure, and its particular model of capitalism. But now that American and British government documents from the 1950s have been released, it emerges that the United States - as part of its Cold War economic and military strategy in East Asia - played a large part in assisting Japan out of its economic difficulties, whereas Britain's role seems to have been more ambivalent and circumspect. <P><P>This book sets out to rectify the lack of full research into Anglo-Japanese trade relations from the late 1940s up to the early 1960s, and to examine the impact of cultural differences and perceptions on diplomacy, as well as the influence of prevailing political considerations like the Cold War. This book highlights the ebbs and flows in bilateral relations as Japan increased its economic and financial presence in Southeast Asia and Britain retreated politically and economically from its Empire in the East.
Japan’s Prisoners of Conscience: Protest and Law During the Iraq War
by Lawrence RepetaThis book is a narrative account of the criminal prosecution of three peaceful protesters in Japan during the Iraq War that tells the inside story of their arrests and trial and examines the larger issues raised by the case. Based on interviews with defendants, lawyers, and eyewitnesses and other Japanese language sources, the book carries rich descriptions of the individuals at the heart of the story, including the charismatic leader of the "Tachikawa Tent Village" who has been protesting since U.S. military forces were stationed in her hometown in the early postwar era. Authored by an attorney who has researched and written on Japanese legal issues for more than three decades and was the plaintiff in a suit that made constitutional history by opening Japan’s courts to free reporting, this book offers expert insights into the forces that affect the right to freedom of political speech in Japan. Illustrating the sharp political conflict that has deeply affected Japan’s defense policy for decades, this book will be of great interest to scholars and students of Comparative Law, Peace Studies, Japanese Society, and Modern Asian History.
Japan's Prosecution Review Commission: On the Democratic Oversight of Decisions Not To Charge (Palgrave Advances in Criminology and Criminal Justice in Asia)
by David T. JohnsonThis book explains Japan’s unique Prosecution Review Commission (PRC) which is composed of eleven lay people selected randomly from voter registration lists. Each of the country’s 165 PRCs reviews non-charge decisions made by professional prosecutors and determines which cases should be reinvestigated or charged. PRCs also provide prosecutors with general proposals and recommendations for improving their policies and practices. The book analyzes the history and operations of the PRC and uses statistics and case studies to examine its various impacts, from legitimation and shadow effects to kickbacks and mandatory prosecution. More broadly, this book explores a problem that is common in many criminal justice systems: how to hold prosecutors accountable for their non-charge decisions. It discusses the potential these panels have for improving the quality of criminal justice in Japan and other countries, and it will appeal to scholars and students studying prosecution and democracy, criminal justice, criminology, lay participation, justice reform, and Japanese studies.
Japan's Pseudo-Democracy
by Peter J. HerzogRocked by scandals and accusations that crucial decisions are made by non-elected officials, Japan has been called a democracy in name only. Is it?
Japan's Quest: The Search for International Recognition, Status and Role
by Warren HunsbergerAn international team of ten specialists in Japanese and American foreign relations address the crucial question: what role should Japan play in international affairs? They try to find a satisfactory answer to a concern which was first raised in the mid-19th century.
Japan's Quest for Stability in Southeast Asia: Navigating the Turning Points in Postwar Asia (Routledge Contemporary Japan Series)
by Taizo MiyagiMore than any other region in the world, Asia has witnessed tremendous change in the post-war era. A continent once engulfed by independence and revolution, and later by the Cold War and civil war, has now been transformed into the world’s most economically dynamic region. What caused this change in Asia? The key to answering this question lies in the post-war history of maritime Asia and, in particular, the path taken by the maritime nation of Japan. Analysing the importance of Japan’s relationship with Southeast Asia, this book therefore aims to illustrate the hidden trail left by Japan during the period of upheaval that has shaped Asia today—an era marked by the American Cold War strategy, the dissolution of the British Empire in Asia, and the rise of China. It provides a comprehensive account of post-war maritime Asia, making use of internationally sourced primary materials, as well as declassified Japanese government papers. As such, Japan's Quest for Stability in Southeast Asia will be useful to students and scholars of Japanese Politics, Asian Politics and Asian History.
Japan's Re-emergence as a 'Normal' Military Power (Adelphi series)
by Christopher HughesIs Japan re-emerging as a normal, or even a great, military power in regional and global security affairs? This Adelphi Paper assesses the overall trajectory of Japan’s security policy over the last decade, and the impact of a changing Japanese military posture on the stability of East Asia. The paper examines Japan’s evolving security debate, set against the background of a shifting international environment and domestic policymaking system; the status of Japan’s national military capabilities and constitutional prohibitions; post-Cold War developments in the US Japan alliance; and Japan’s role in multilateral regional security dialogue, UN PKO, and US-led coalitions of the willing. It concludes that Japan is undoubtedly moving along the trajectory of becoming a more assertive military power, and that this trend has been accelerated post-9/11. Japan is unlikely, though, to channel its military power through greatly different frameworks than at present. Japan will opt for the enhanced, and probably inextricable, integration of its military capabilities into the US Japan alliance, rather than pursuing options for greater autonomy or multilateralism. Japan’s strengthened role as the defensive shield for the offensive sword of US power projection will only serve to bolster US military hegemony in East Asia and globally.
Japan's Relations With China: Facing a Rising Power (The University of Sheffield/Routledge Japanese Studies Series)
by Lam Peng ErThe essays in this collection examine Sino-Japanese political relations given the phenomenon of ‘a rising China and a stagnating Japan’. Questioning whether their relationship is one of cooperation or conflict, the book reviews China and Japan’s bilateral ties to see whether they have deepened and broadened despite differences in outlook, national interest and political systems. Adding a new perspective to the Sino-Japanese political relations discussion, the book looks beyond the interactions of central governments to examine the role of NGOs, local governments and sub-regional linkages. The contributors adopt a range of analytical approaches and explore case studies including the Taiwan issue, Japanese Official Development Policy towards China and joint fishery management in the East China Sea. With perspectives from the US, Russia and Malaysia, the book yields new insights into this complex and multifaceted relationship and is a welcome addition to the current literature.
Japan's Relations with North Korea and the Recalibration of Risk (The University of Sheffield/Routledge Japanese Studies Series)
by Ra MasonNorth Korea’s contemporary relations with Japan have been fraught with tension. Tactics employed by Pyongyang have included abductions of Japanese citizens, missile launches over Japanese territory, intrusions into Japanese sovereign waters, and nuclear tests in defiance of Japanese and international condemnation. In light of the security risk the DPRK poses, this book examines how the state, market, and society in Japan have framed North Korea as a salient evil, and have in turn constructed and manipulated the risks posed by their neighbour. Using the example of Japan’s post-Cold War responses to North Korea, this book studies the concept of risk in international relations, and its interactive relationship with domestic civil society. It focuses on how security risks are identified and re-evaluated by policy makers, mass media, and civil society stakeholders, and in doing so disentangles the complex processes by which Japan has framed and recalibrated risks in response to the DPRK. By exploring how risks identified with Pyongyang’s behaviour towards Japan have been mediated between the state, market, and society via mainstream discourse in Japan, Ra Mason highlights the way in which these processes are causally linked to key actors’ conceptions of risk. Indeed, this book provides an original theoretical framework – distinguishing between risk and traditional threat perceptions – through which to address issues of national security and identity, as well as the norms which inform them. Japan’s Relations with North Korea and the Recalibration of Risk will be welcomed by students and scholars across a wide range of fields including Japanese politics, Asia-Pacific studies, international relations, and security studies.
Japan's Relations with Southeast Asia: The Fukuda Doctrine and Beyond (Politics in Asia)
by Lam Peng ErThe Fukuda Doctrine has been the official blueprint to Japan’s foreign policy towards Southeast Asia since 1977. This book examines the Fukuda Doctrine in the context of Japan-Southeast Asia relations, and discusses the possibility of a non-realist approach in the imagining and conduct of international relations in East Asia. The collapse of 54 years of Liberal Democratic Party rule and the advent of a new Democratic Party of Japan raises the question of whether the Fukuda Doctrine is still relevant as a framework to analyse Tokyo’s policy and behaviour towards Southeast Asia. Looking at its origins and norms amidst three decades of change, the book argues that the Fukuda Doctrine is still relevant to Japan-Southeast Asian relations, and should be extended to relations between China and Japan if an East Asian Community is to be built. The book goes on to discuss the Fukuda Doctrine in relation to the power shift in Asia, including the revitalization of Japan’s security role. By providing a detailed understanding of a non-western perspective of Japan’s relationship with Southeast Asia, this book is a useful contribution for students and scholars of Asian Studies, Politics and International Relations.
Japan's Response to Crisis and Change in the World Economy (Routledge Revivals)
by Michèle SchmiegelowOriginally published in 1986, after a period of global changes and financial crisis in the majority of industrialised countries, this book explores how Japan’s economy seemed to maintain its success. This study provides an overview of the Japanese case and the main schools of thought that arose from it by dealing with export-related issues such as reforms in foreign exchange and trade control laws and the internationalisation of Japan’s financial markets as well as more domestic issues such as employment and wages. This title will be of interest to students of Asian Studies and Economics.
Japan's Sea Lane Security: A Matter of Life and Death? (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies)
by Euan GrahamThis is the first major English-language study to explore the broad and longstanding connections between Japan’s national security and the safety of its sea lanes. Tracing issues from pre-and post-1945 eras, the book explores how Japan’s concerns with sea lane protection have developed across such diverse fields as military strategy, diplomacy, trade policy, energy security, and law enforcement. Drawing upon case study material and primary research including interviews with officials and security analysts, the book presents a chronological analysis of Japan’s sea lane security. While Japan’s security policies have recently undergone relatively rapid change, a historical treatment of sea lane security issues reveals long-term continuity in security policymakers’ perceptions and responses regarding Japan's defence and foreign policy. Revealing a neglected but important aspect of Japan’s military and economic security, the book investigates why officials and analysts continue to portray the defence of Japan’s sea lanes as ‘a matter of life and death’.
Japan's Security and Economic Dependence on China and the United States: Cool Politics, Lukewarm Economics (Politics in Asia)
by Keisuke IidaWith the rise of China, Japan and many East Asian countries are caught between maximizing profit from economic ties with her, and strengthening alliances with the United States to prevent China from overpowering them. Liberals and realists thus debate over the likelihood of either security tensions easing up or economic interdependence getting reduced eventually. On the other hand, Iida introduces a new theory that reinterprets the relationship between state security and economic interdependence among countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Based on case studies of recent episodes in East Asia, and especially on the experiences of Japan, this book highlights an interesting dynamic between security and economic interdependence: risk avoidance. By understanding how risk avoidance affects the behavior of these countries in terms of security and economics, it becomes evident how they eventually settle into what Iida calls "Cool Politics" and "Lukewarm Economics".
Japan's Security Identity: From a Peace-State to an International-State (The University of Sheffield/Routledge Japanese Studies Series)
by Bhubhindar SinghSince the end of the Cold War, there has been a significant change in Japanese security policy, as Japan’s security identity has shifted from a peace state, to an international state. In this book, Bhubhindar Singh argues that from the 1990s onwards, the Japanese security policymaking elite recognized that its earlier approach to security policy which was influenced by the peace-state security identity was no longer appropriate. Rather, as a member of the international community, Japan had to carve out a responsible role in regional and international security affairs, which required greater emphasis on the role of the military in Japan’s security policy. To explore the change in Japan’s security identity and its associated security behaviour, this book contrasts the three areas that define and shape Japanese security policy: Japan’s conception (or definition) of national security; the country’s contribution, in military terms, to regional and international affairs; and the changes to the security policy regime responsible for the security policy formulation. Further, it seeks to challenge the dominant realist interpretation of Japanese security policy by adopting an identity-based approach and showing how whilst realist accounts correctly capture the trajectory of Japanese post-Cold War security policy, they fail to explain the underlying causes of the change in Japanese security behaviour in the post-Cold War period. This book is an important addition to the current literature on Japanese security policy, and will be of great use to students and scholars interested in Japanese and Asian politics, as well as security studies and international relations more broadly.
Japan's Security Policy and the ASEAN Regional Forum: The Search for Multilateral Security in the Asia-Pacific (The University of Sheffield/Routledge Japanese Studies Series)
by Takeshi YuzawaBased on primary resources, including documents and extensive interviews with Japanese policy makers, this book provides a comprehensive and detailed empirical analysis of Japan’s involvement in Asia-Pacific security multilateralism after the end of the Cold War with special reference to the ARF. Giving an in-depth account of new developments in Japan’s post-Cold War security policy, Yuzawa also examines: Japan's initial motivations, expectations and objectives for promoting regional security multilateralism Japan's diplomacy for achieving these objectives and experiences in the ARF since its formation the effectiveness and limitations of the ARF with regards national and Asia-Pacific security the effects of Japan's experiences in the ARF on its initial conception of regional securty multilateralism and the implications of this for the direction of its overall security policy problems and difficulties that arose as a result of Japan's post-Cold War security policy of simultaneously pursuing two different security approaches - namely the strengthening of regional security institutions and the Japan-US alliance. This book will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of Japanese security studies, as well as international relations, Asian politics and international organizations.
Japan's Security Relations with China since 1989: From Balancing to Bandwagoning? (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies)
by Reinhard DrifteJapan's Security Relations with China since 1989 raises the crucial question of whether Japan's political leadership which is still preoccupied with finding a new political constellation and with overcoming a deep economic crisis is able to handle such a complex policy in the face of an increasingly assertive China and a US alliance partner with strong swings between engaging and containing China's power. This study of the highly topical bilateral relationship will be of great interest to students and researchers in Japanese and Chinese Studies, Politics, International Relations and Security Studies.
Japan's Shifting Status in the World and the Development of Japan's Medical Insurance Systems
by Yoneyuki SugitaThis book explains the origins and early developments of Japanese medical insurance systems from the 1920s to the 1950s. It closely examines the changes in the systems and the symbiotic relationship between Japan’s status in international relations and the development of domestic medical insurance systems. While previous studies have regarded the origins and development of Japanese medical insurance systems as merely a domestic issue and pay little attention to the role or effects of international affairs, this book closely examines the changes in these systems by looking at the enactment of the Health Insurance Law in 1922, the establishment of the National Health Insurance in 1938, the epoch-making reforms of 1942, numerous plans in the early Allied occupation period, and Japan’s social security plan in 1950. In doing so, it shows that there was indeed a symbiotic relationship between Japan’s status in international relations and the changing nature of domestic medical insurance systems. It also reveals that Japan’s status in international relations set the framework within which interested groups, primarily the government, made rational choices. This book is a valuable resource for academics, researchers and students who have an interest in the Japanese medical insurance systems.