Download or read book Party Politics and Decentralization in Japan and France written by Koichi Nakano and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-12-04 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Decentralization is a curious policy for a central government to pursue. If politics is essentially about the struggle for power, why would anyone want to give away the power that one struggled for and won? This book argues that it is precisely party competition in search of power that propels decentralization. Koichi Nakano develops his core argument through in-depth, qualitative research on the politics of reform in France and Japan. Introducing the concept of oppositional policy, he traces the process through which parties in opposition reinvent their ideologies and policy platforms in an attempt to present themselves as the voice of the governed, broaden popular support through the advocacy of enhanced democratic control of government, and proceed to implement some of these oppositional policies after capturing power. This book, thus, takes the role of political parties in the democratic process seriously - parties take up certain issues and espouse certain solutions actively as weapons in the power struggle both on the electoral front and in the policy process. Party competition is not merely a formal condition of democracy; it is also a mechanism with substantive policy impact on its evolution. Party Politics and Decentralization in Japan and France will be of interest to students of Japanese and French politics and comparative politics in general.
Download or read book Party Politics and Decentralization in Japan and France written by and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Party Politics and Decentralization in Japan and France written by Koichi Nakano and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-12-04 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using Japan and France as case studies, this book argues that decentralization is fundamentally an "oppositional" policy advocated by political parties in opposition, placed on the legislative agenda when they come to power, and pursued at times even when it ceases to make partisan sense to do so. In short, decentralization occurs when the opposition governs.
Download or read book Restructuring Government written by Linda Hasunuma and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Cities Autonomy and Decentralization in Japan written by Carola Hein and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-09-27 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adding a new perspective to the current literature on decentralization in Japan, Cities, Autonomy and Decentralization in Japan, approaches the subject from an urban studies and planning approach. The essays in the collection present a cogent compilation of case studies focusing on the past, present and future of decentralization in Japan. These include small scale development in the fields such as citizen participation (machizukuri), urban form and architecture, disaster prevention and conservation of monuments. The contributors suggest that new trends are emerging after the bursting of Japan's economic bubble and assess them in the context of the country's larger socio-political system. This in-depth analysis of the development outside of Japan provides a valuable addition to students of Urban, Asian and Japanese Studies.
Download or read book Ozawa Ichir and Japanese Politics written by Aurelia George Mulgan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-11-27 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ozawa Ichirō was the axis on which Japanese politics turned for more than two decades. He helped to reshape the electoral system, political funding rules, the evolution of the party system, the nature of executive government, the roles and powers of bureaucrats, and the conduct of parliamentary and policymaking processes. Admired and reviled in almost equal measure, Ozawa has been the most debated and yet least understood politician in Japan, with little agreement to be found amongst the many who have debated his patent political assets and palpable political flaws. This book examines the political goals, behaviour, methods and practices of Ozawa Ichirō, and in doing so, provides fascinating insights into the inner workings of Japanese politics. It explores Ozawa’s paradoxical and conflicting contributions in terms of two contrasting models of ‘old’ and ‘new’ politics. Indeed, therein lies the problem of understanding the ‘real’ Ozawa: he remained a practitioner of old politics despite his rhetorical agenda of change to bring about new politics. In seeking to unravel the Ozawa enigma, Aurelia George Mulgan reveals his primary motivations, to establish whether he sought power primarily to enact reforms, or, whether his reform goals simply disguised power-seeking objectives. This volume seeks to illuminate Ozawa’s true character as a politician, and untangle the complex elements of old and new politics that he represents. Through an in-depth study of Ozawa and his political activities, this book shows how the Japanese political system works at the micro level of individual politicians, political relationships and systems. As such it will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Japanese politics, Asian politics and political systems.
Download or read book The Great Transformation of Japanese Capitalism written by Sébastien Lechevalier and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-02-05 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1980s the performance of Japan’s economy was an international success story, and led many economists to suggest that the 1990s would be a Japanese decade. Today, however, the dominant view is that Japan is inescapably on a downward slope. Rather than focusing on the evolution of the performance of Japanese capitalism, this book reflects on the changes that it has experienced over the past 30 years, and presents a comprehensive analysis of the great transformation of Japanese capitalism from the heights of the 1980s, through the lost decades of the 1990s, and well into the 21st century. This book posits an alternative analysis of the Japanese economic trajectory since the early 1980s, and argues that whereas policies inspired by neo-liberalism have been presented as a solution to the Japanese crisis, these policies have in fact been one of the causes of the problems that Japan has faced over the past 30 years. Crucially, this book seeks to understand the institutional and organisational changes that have characterised Japanese capitalism since the 1980s, and to highlight in comparative perspective, with reference to the ‘neo-liberal moment’, the nature of the transformation of Japanese capitalism. Indeed, the arguments presented in this book go well beyond Japan itself, and examine the diversity of capitalism, notably in continental Europe, which has experienced problems that in many ways are also comparable to those of Japan. The Great Transformation of Japanese Capitalism will appeal to students and scholars of both Japanese politics and economics, as well as those interested in comparative political economy.
Download or read book Japan s International Fisheries Policy written by Roger D. Smith and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few nations rely upon the ocean as much as Japan for livelihood, culture and transport. The seas have long played a vital role for the Japanese, helping to support the economic and social life of a nation that possesses few resources and little arable land, and sustain a population that has nearly tripled in the last century. Fish are a distinctive feature of the Japanese diet, constituting nearly half of all animal protein consumed – the highest rate in the world. The industry itself has provided an impetus for coastal community growth and national economic development over the past century, while fisheries have worked their way into Japanese culture and customs, serving as a dominant symbol in traditional arts and folklore. This book explores the overarching rationale that motivated Japanese international fisheries policy throughout the post-war period until today, highlighting the importance of international fisheries to Japan and the stature this resource has occupied as a national interest. It provides a comparative view of Japanese foreign policy at various ocean conferences, treaty negotiations, bilateral diplomatic initiatives and other maritime relations that constitute ocean policy over half a century, and investigates the domestic constituents of national policy. Roger Smith argues that the rationale for international fisheries policy may be best viewed as deriving from Japan’s unique defence strategy for its national interests: comprehensive security. Encompassing non-military elements and most importantly defence of economic interests, Japan’s international fisheries policy provides an interesting case study of how comprehensive security is conceptualised and carried out. Taking a broad view of Japan’s international fisheries policies from 1945 to the present, this book highlights the key trends in policy motives and means throughout the post-war period. As such, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of Japanese studies, international and environmental law, resource management and international relations, as well as to policy makers working in the field.
Download or read book Beyond the Gender Gap in Japan written by Gill Steel and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2019-01-23 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do Japanese women enjoy a high sense of well-being in a context of high inequality? Beyond the Gender Gap in Japan brings together researchers from across the social sciences to investigate this question. The authors analyze women’s values and the lived experiences at home, in the family, at work, in their leisure time, as volunteers, and in politics and policy-making. Their research shows that the state and firms have blurred “the public” and “the private” in postwar Japan, constraining individuals’ lives, and reveals the uneven pace of change in women’s representation in politics. Yet, despite these constraints, the increasing diversification in how people live and how they manage their lives demonstrates that some people are crafting a variety of individual solutions to structural problems. Covering a significant breadth of material, the book presents comprehensive findings that use a variety of research methods—public opinion surveys, in-depth interviews, a life history, and participant observation—and, in doing so, look beyond Japan’s perennially low rankings in gender equality indices to demonstrate the diversity underneath, questioning some of the stereotypical assumptions about women in Japan.
Download or read book Schoolgirls Money and Rebellion in Japan written by Sharon Kinsella and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-07 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japanese society in the 1990s and 2000s produced a range of complicated material about sexualized schoolgirls, and few topics have caught the imagination of western observers so powerfully. While young Japanese girls had previously been portrayed as demure and obedient, in training to become the obedient wife and prudent mother, in recent years less than demure young women have become central to urban mythology and the content of culture. The cultic fascination with the figure of a deviant school girl, which has some of its earliest roots in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, likewise re-emerged and proliferated in fascinating and timely ways in the 1990s and 2000s. Through exploring the history and politics underlying the cult of girls in contemporary Japanese media and culture, this book presents a striking picture of contemporary Japanese society from the 1990s to the start of the 2010s. At its core is an in-depth case study of the media delight and panic surrounding delinquent prostitute schoolgirls. Sharon Kinsella traces this social panic back to male anxieties relating to gender equality and female emancipation in Japan. In each chapter in turn, the book reveals the conflicted, nostalgic, pornographic, and at times distinctly racialized manner, in which largely male sentiments about this transformation of gender relations have been expressed. The book simultaneously explores the stylistic and flamboyant manner in which young women have reacted to the weight of an obsessive and accusatory male media gaze. Covering the often controversial subjects of compensated dating (enjo kôsai), the role of porn and lifestyle magazines, the historical sources and politicized social meanings of the schoolgirl, and the racialization of fashionable girls, Schoolgirls, Money, Rebellion in Japan will be invaluable to students and scholars of Japanese culture and society, sociology, anthropology, gender and women's studies.
Download or read book Configurations of Family in Contemporary Japan written by Tomoko Aoyama and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The middle-class nuclear family model has long dominated discourses on family in Japan. Yet there have always been multiple configurations of family and kinship, which, in the context of significant socio-economic and demographic shifts since the 1990s, have become increasingly visible in public discourse. This book explores the meanings and practices of "family" in Japan, and brings together research by scholars of literature, gender studies, media and cultural studies, sociology and anthropology. While the primary focus is the "Japanese" family, it also examines the experience and practice of family beyond the borders of Japan, in such settings as Brazil, Australia, and Bali. The chapters explore key issues such as ageing, single households, non-heterosexual living arrangements and parenting. Moreover, many of the issues addressed, such as the growing diversity of family, the increase in single-person households, and the implications of an ageing society, are applicable to other mature, late-industrial societies. Employing both multi- and inter-disciplinary approaches, this book combines textual analysis of contemporary television, film, literature, manga, anime and other media with empirical and ethnographic studies of families in Japan and in transnational spaces. As such, it will be of great interest to students and scholars working across a number of fields including Japanese culture and society, sociology of family, gender studies, film and media studies, literature and cultural studies, and gerontology.
Download or read book Understanding Japanese Society written by Joy Hendry and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new edition provides a clear introduction to Japanese society which does not require any previous knowledge of the country. It contains new material on the effects of the Asian crisis and recession in Japan, the changes to the Japanese ruling political elite and more.
Download or read book Modern Japan written by Elise Tipton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-19 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thoroughly revised and updated third edition of Modern Japan provides a concise and fascinating introduction to the social, cultural and political history of modern Japan. Ranging from the Tokugawa period to the present day, Tipton links everyday lives with major historical developments, charting the country’s evolution into a modernized, economic and political world power. Drawing on the latest research, the book features new material on the global financial crisis, the Fukushima nuclear disaster and continuing political instability. While retaining analysis of women's issues, minorities and popular culture, this third edition's expanded coverage of Japan's role in the Second World War, life in the empire and the history of science, medicine and technology contributes to a sense of the complexity and diversity of modern Japan. Including an updated chronology, glossary and guide to further reading, as well as new maps and illustrations to help students to engage directly with the subject matter, this highly accessible and comprehensive textbook is an essential resource for students, scholars and teachers of Japanese history, politics, culture and society.
Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Postwar Japan written by William D. Hoover and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-12-15 with total page 653 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan is a mix of the old and the new, traditional and modern, and old fashion and innovative. It has traveled the road to a modern destination without totally losing sight of its traditions and values. Although some in Japan lament the passing of old ways, Japan has held on to a reasonable amount of its traditions and values. This is easier to find in its arts and crafts and its literature and films as well as in its social habits. This book will introduce the broad sweep of people, events, and trends, including the successes and failures, of postwar Japan. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Postwar Japan contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Japan.
Download or read book An Emerging Non Regular Labour Force in Japan written by Huiyan Fu and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like many industrialised nations, the current employment trend in Japan centres on diversification of the labour market with an increased use of temporary labour. Among a wide range of non-regular labour arrangements, haken are a newly legalised category of non-regular workers who are typically employed by the employment agency while working at the facilities of and being under the authority of the client firm. They have recently expanded exponentially under the state’s deregulation policy and assumed considerable significance in political debate, especially with regard to the nation’s ‘widening gaps’ known as kakusa. This is the first anthropological study of haken and temporary agency work (TAW) in Japan which combines both macro- and micro level analyses. At the macro level, haken are explored from a historical perspective with a view to showing the changing state policy and public perception of haken. At the micro level, how TAW is experienced by real people in concrete situations is extremely varied and complex, often depending on intersecting structural variables including gender, age and class. The book therefore provides insight into the gap between powerful discourses and everyday life, as well as a better understanding of personhood in Japan’s shifting landscape of employment. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Japanese Studies, Japanese Business, Asian Business and Asian Anthropology.
Download or read book Japan s Modern History 1857 1937 written by Junji Banno and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-08-13 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the course of the period 1857 to 1937 in Japan, six distinct stages can be identified as the country moved from Shogun rule and its subsequent overthrow, from industrialisation and investment to the Meiji Constitution and then from Taishō democracy to Shōwa fascism. In this book, Junji Banno stresses the mutual relationships between each period, and to this end renames then accordingly: the age of reform; age of revolution; age of construction; age of management; age of reorganisation; and age of crisis. Following this model, the book covers eighty years of history in Japan, focusing on political history and foreign relations, with extensive material also on economic development and foreign influences on political institutions and practices. Based on extensive archival research, Japan’s Modern History considers synoptically the key trends and their significance over the period of 1857 to 1937. In turn, it presents in detail fascinating information on many of the main leaders and other significant figures, with extensive quotations from their writings, letters and diaries. This book is a translation into English of a major work of scholarship by a leading historian of modern Japan, and may be considered the apex of Junji Banno’s work in the field. As such, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of both Japanese history and history more broadly.
Download or read book Japan s Postwar written by Michael Lucken and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historical 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.
