Download or read book Social change and community politics in urban Japan written by and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Social Change and Community Politics in Urban Japan written by Christie W. Kiefer and published by Chapel Hill : Institute for Research in Social Science. This book was released on 1976 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Reed Town Japan written by Yasumasa Kuroda and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2019-03-31 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a community study that in its own right illuminates various facets of political change and dynamics even in Japanese national life, and points out various fruitful directions for further studies of Japanese town and urban politics. The work was written for the dual purpose of developing a theory of community power structure and political change and of understanding and describing the politics of a small Japanese town.
Download or read book Living Cities in Japan written by André Sorensen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-08-07 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last fifteen years local citizens' movements have spread rapidly throughout Japan. Created with the aim of improving the quality of the local environment, and of environmental management processes, such activities are widely referred to as machizukuri, and represent an important development in local politics and urban management in Japan. This volume examines the growth and nature of such civil society participation in local urban and environmental governance, raising important questions about the changing roles of and relations between central and local government, and between citizens and the state, in managing shared spaces. The machizukuri processes studied here can be seen as the focus of an important emerging trend toward increased civic participation in managing processes of urban change in Japan. The contributors provide a comprehensive overview of the machizukuri phenomenon through examination not only of theory and history, but also of case studies illustrating real changes in the institutions of place making and neighbourhood governance. Living Cities in Japan will be of particular value to readers interested in social, urban, geographical and environmental studies.
Download or read book Japan s Quiet Transformation written by Jeff Kingston and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-08-02 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1990s have been termed as 'Japan's lost decade' to describe how the phenomenal growth in the Japanese economy ground to a halt and the country was crippled by enormous and ongoing political, economic and social problems. In responding to these unprecedented difficulties, wide-ranging reforms have been adopted including NPO, information disclosure and judicial reform legislation. Controversially, this book argues that such reforms are creating a more robust civil society and demonstrate that Japan is far more dynamic than is generally recognized.
Download or read book Modern Passings written by Andrew Bernstein and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2006-01-31 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What to do with the dead? In Imperial Japan, as elsewhere in the modernizing world, answering this perennial question meant relying on age-old solutions. Funerals, burials, and other mortuary rites had developed over the centuries with the aim of building continuity in the face of loss. As Japanese coped with the economic, political, and social changes that radically remade their lives in the decades after the Meiji Restoration (1868), they clung to local customs and Buddhist rituals such as sutra readings and incense offerings that for generations had given meaning to death. Yet death, as this highly original study shows, was not impervious to nationalism, capitalism, and the other isms that constituted and still constitute modernity. As Japan changed, so did its handling of the inevitable. Following an overview of the early development of funerary rituals in Japan,Andrew Bernstein demonstrates how diverse premodern practices from different regions and social strata were homogenized with those generated by middle-class city dwellers to create the form of funerary practice dominant today. He describes the controversy over cremation, explaining how and why it became the accepted manner of disposing of the dead. He also explores the conflict-filled process of remaking burial practices, which gave rise, in part, to the suburban "soul parks" now prevalent throughout Japan; the (largely failed) attempt by nativists to replace Buddhist death rites with Shinto ones; and the rise and fall of the funeral procession. In the process, Bernstein shows how today’s "traditional" funeral is in fact an early twentieth-century invention and traces the social and political factors that led to this development. These include a government wanting to separate itself from religion even while propagating State Shinto, the appearance of a new middle class, and new forms of transportation. As these and other developments created new contexts for old rituals, Japanese faced the problem of how to fit them all together. What to do with the dead? is thus a question tied to a still broader one that haunts all societies experiencing rapid change: What to do with the past? Modern Passings is an impressive and far-reaching exploration of Japan’s efforts to solve this puzzle, one that is at the heart of the modern experience.
Download or read book Rethinking Locality in Japan written by Sonja Ganseforth and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-07-20 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book inquires what is meant when we say "local" and what "local" means in the Japanese context. Through the window of locality, it enhances an understanding of broader political and socio-economic shifts in Japan. This includes demographic change, electoral and administrative reform, rural decline and revitalization, welfare reform, as well as the growing metabolic rift in energy and food production. Chapters throughout this edited volume discuss the different and often contested ways in which locality in Japan has been reconstituted, from historical and contemporary instances of administrative restructuring, to more subtle social processes of making – and unmaking – local places. Contributions from multiple disciplinary perspectives are included to investigate the tensions between overlapping and often incongruent dimensions of locality. Framed by a theoretical discussion of socio-spatial thinking, such issues surrounding the construction and renegotiation of local places are not only relevant for Japan specialists, but also connected with topical scholarly debates further afield. Accordingly, Rethinking Locality in Japan will appeal to students and scholars from Japanese studies and human geography to anthropology, history, sociology and political science.
Download or read book Local Political Participation in Japan written by Dani Daigle Kida and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-08-06 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Do Japanese Citizens Participate Politically? Most Japanese citizens, perhaps with a bit of a chuckle, would answer that ‘average’ Japanese do not participate in politics. While political attitudes in other countries have fluctuated corresponding to social, political, and economic climates of the times; in Japan, a consistently negative view of politics has persisted since the late 1960s. Japanese citizens perceive their government much more critically than citizens of neighboring countries. While many Japanese citizens participate in specific political acts such as signing candidate support cards, attending political rallies, or directly contacting politicians, they largely do not view these activities as political participation. Kida examines why this is the case; whether there is a connection between negative views of politics and how Japanese people self-identify their political participation; how Japanese citizens attempt to exact change or influence policy; how the government engages citizens in political participation; and the relationship between citizens’ attitudes towards government and levels of political participation. Kida explores political participation on the local level, to better understand the sources of political attitudes. While participation studies have been conducted in Japan, most are centered in large urban areas, focusing on either extreme forms of participation such as protests, or concentrated on single issue participation such as the environmental or women’s movements. This book, in contrast, explores what every day ‘regular’ in the system political participation looks like in a small traditional Japanese city – using Oita, a small city in Kyushu, as a case study. It focuses especially on the role local institutions and politicians play in influencing the kinds of participation available and subsequently, the attitudes created about participation.
Download or read book Aspects of Social Change in Modern Japan written by Reinhard Bendix and published by Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1967 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Compilation of conference papers presented at a seminar to study social change in Japan since 1870 - covers historical aspects, changes in family and village life, human relations, social structures, community relations, intergroup relations, rural migration to the cities, labour relations, trade unionism, social implications of economic growth, etc. Conference held in Bermuda 1963 jan.
Download or read book Neighborhood Associations and Local Governance in Japan written by Robert J. Pekkanen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-20 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although local neighborhood associations are found in many countries, Japan’s are distinguished by their ubiquity, scope of activities, and very high participation rates, making them important for the study of society and politics. Most Japanese belong to one local neighborhood association or another, making them Japan’s most numerous civil society organization, and one that powerfully shapes governance outcomes in the country. And, they also often blur the state-society boundary, making them theoretically intriguing. Neighborhood Associations and Local Governance in Japan draws on a unique and novel body of empirical data derived from the first national survey of neighborhood associations carried out in 2007 and provides a multifaceted empirical portrait of Japan’s neighborhood associations. It examines how local associational structures affect the quality of local governance, and thus the quality of life for Japan’s citizens and residents, and illuminates the way in which these ambiguous associations can help us refine civil society theory and show how they contribute to governance. As well as outlining the key features of neighbourhood associations, the book goes on to examine in detail the way in which neighbourhood associations contribute to governance, in terms of social capital, networks with other community organizations, social service provision, cooperation with local governments and political participation. This book will be welcomed by students and scholars of Japanese politics, Japanese society, anthropology, urban studies as well as those interested in social capital and civil society.
Download or read book Political Opposition and Local Politics in Japan written by Kurt Steiner and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan's national government, and most of its local governments, have been in conservative hands for more than three decades. Recently, however, the strength of progressive opposition forces has been increasing at the local level. The contributors to this volume analyze this increasing opposition to determine whether it is a temporary phenomenon or portends permanent changes. Originally published in 1981. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Download or read book Social Change and the City in Japan written by 矢崎武夫 and published by . This book was released on 1968 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholarly study by a professor at Keio University, Japan.
Download or read book Community Volunteers in Japan written by Lynne Y. Nakano and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on extensive original research, this book explores the reality of volunteering in an urban residential Japanese neighbourhood.
Download or read book The Making of Urban Japan written by André Sorensen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-08-19 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the twentieth century, Japan was transformed from a poor, primarily rural country into one of the world's largest industrial powers and most highly urbanised countries. Interestingly, while Japanese governments and planners borrowed carefully from the planning ideas and methods of many other countries, Japanese urban planning, urban governance and cities developed very differently from those of other developed countries. Japan's distinctive patterns of urbanisation are partly a product of the highly developed urban system, urban traditions and material culture of the pre-modern period, which remained influential until well after the Pacific War. A second key influence has been the dominance of central government in urban affairs, and its consistent prioritisation of economic growth over the public welfare or urban quality of life. André Sorensen examines Japan's urban trajectory from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, paying particular attention to the weak development of Japanese civil society, local governments, and land development and planning regulations.
Download or read book Japan s Living Politics written by Tessa Morris-Suzuki and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-31 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first two decades of the twenty-first century have witnessed a rise of populism and decline of public confidence in many of the formal institutions of democracy. This crisis of democracy has stimulated searches for alternative ways of understanding and enacting politics. Against this background, Tessa Morris-Suzuki explores the long history of informal everyday political action in the Japanese context. Despite its seemingly inflexible and monolithic formal political system, Japan has been the site of many fascinating small-scale experiments in 'informal life politics': grassroots do-it-yourself actions which seek not to lobby governments for change, but to change reality directly, from the bottom up. She explores this neglected history by examining an interlinked series of informal life politics experiments extending from the 1910s to the present day.
Download or read book Reinventing Japan written by Yasuo Takao and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-10-15 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The merchant nation of Japan's fall from grace in recent years has lead to a major realignment of state - society power relations with welcomed democratizing effects. This book is about the emerging civic face of twenty-first century Japan. It illustrates how new and emerging relationships between civil society groups and local government are becoming key elements of Japan's changing structures of governance. It closely examines such issue areas as e-democracy, decentralization, foreign workers, NGOs and the role of women, which have converged to open the way for reinventing Japan. It demonstrates how the expansion of associational life in Japan is surely heading for a more autonomous civil society.
Download or read book Changing Japanese Suburbia written by Ben-Ari and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-02-01 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1991. This book, based on fieldwork carried out in Japan between 1981 and 1983, is a study of two residential communities in the context of Japan's post-war urban and social developments. Yamanaka, a commuter village, and Hieidaira, a new suburban housing estate, are set against the picturesque Hieizan mountain chain to the east of Kyoto's northern suburbs.
