Download or read book The Post war Roots of Japanese Political Malaise written by Dagfinn Gatu and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-06-12 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writings on post-war Japanese politics have tended to take for granted the dominance of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as inevitable, without questioning how this came about. This book analyses the nature of Japanese party politics over the first four decades following the Second World War, assessing how the chief contenders – the conservative LDP and the socialists JSP (Japan Socialist Party) – competed in terms of their strengths and weaknesses relative to the other. Throughout, it addresses the questions: How effectively were the parties’ strengths harnessed? How did they alter over time? To what extent was the winning formula challenged? Did the loser have access to strengths with a major potential, and, if so, why did these remain underdeveloped? It extends widely to include discussion of the political system, the social and economic environment in which parties operated, internal party matters, especially factions, personal support groups, special interest groups, and the role of government bureaucracy. It shows why the Liberal Democratic Party was dominant, why the Japan Socialist Party remained out of power, and how successive prime ministers conducted policymaking in ways which often resulted in the bureaucracy taking the lead. Overall, the book shows how precedents for the political system and for policymaking were set in this important period, precedents which continue, and which have contributed significantly to the present conservative stance on many key issues.

Download or read book Revolution and Subjectivity in Postwar Japan written by J. Victor Koschmann and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1996-12 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After World War II, Japanese intellectuals believed that world history was moving inexorably toward bourgeois democracy and then socialism. But who would be the agents—the active "subjects"—of that revolution in Japan? Intensely debated at the time, this question of active subjectivity influenced popular ideas about nationalism and social change that still affect Japanese political culture today. In a major contribution to modern Japanese intellectual history, J. Victor Koschmann analyzes the debate over subjectivity. He traces the arguments of intellectuals from various disciplines and political viewpoints, and finds that despite their stress on individual autonomy, they all came to define subjectivity in terms of deterministic historical structures, thus ultimately deferring the possibility of radical change in Japan. Establishing a basis for historical dialogue about democratic revolution, this book will interest anyone concerned with issues of nationalism, postcolonialism, and the formation of identities.

Download or read book History Memory Politics in Postwar Japan written by Kaoru Iokibe and published by Lynne Rienner Publishers. This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Memories can be shared-or contested. Japan and Korea, just one case in point, share centuries of intertwined history, the nature of which continues to be disputed, particularly with regard to World War II. The authors of History, Memory, and Politics in Postwar Japan explore Japan's historical narratives, and their impact on both domestic politics and diplomatic relations, as they have evolved from 1946 to the present. Presenting the results of more than a decade of collaborative research, their book is a rich contribution to our understanding not only of Japanese politics, but also of how the historical narratives that we embrace have far-reaching consequences.

Download or read book Tanaka written by James Babb and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-11 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kakuei Tanaka was the most powerful politician in Japan for nearly two decades, and his followers have dominated Japanese politics for most of the country's recent history. This account of the life and times of Tanaka explores the public profile and private power-broking of a controversial and powerful politician, opening up in the process the intimate political history of modern Japan.

Download or read book The Postwar Occupation of Japan written by Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2014-11-28 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Explains the formation of a new constitution, as well as the democratization and demilitarization processes *Includes a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents The American occupation of Japan holds a singular and problematic place in the histories both of Japan and of American foreign policy. For the Japanese, the occupation marked the transition from war to peace, from authoritarianism to democracy, and from privation to plenty, making it a passage from one of the darkest chapters in Japanese history to one of the brightest. Nevertheless, the significance of that passage was fraught with ambiguities; after all, Japan did not win its new democracy through revolution from below in the form of a popular indigenous movement pressing for increased rights and a more open, inclusive politics. Instead, Japanese democracy came as a revolution from above, a system imposed wholesale and virtually without consultation by an occupying army whose Supreme Allied Commander, General Douglas MacArthur, wielded power as absolute and unchecked as any emperor. Many critics at the time and since have worried that the political system established by the occupation was thus somehow hollow, a thin veneer of participatory democracy resting uncomfortably atop a deeply conservative and hierarchical culture, symbolized above all by the continuing presence of an emperor. Others have argued that the contradictions of a radical democratic revolution from above are real but irrelevant. Presented for the first time with open space for genuine political speech and action, ordinary Japanese seized the opportunity to exercise agency over the course of their own lives, pulling Japan in directions that neither the old Japanese political elite nor the new American occupation authorities had foreseen. On the American side, the significance of the occupation is no less contentious. On the one hand, after three and a half years of some of the most bitter and bloody combat the world had ever seen, the occupation authorities might well have set out to avenge themselves upon the Japanese people for Pearl Harbor and all that had followed by instituting a harsh and punitive peace, much the way the Soviet Union did in the regions of Germany it came to occupy. That the Americans instead exerted themselves to reconstruct Japan as a peaceful, democratic, and prosperous ally is often proffered as an example of Americans' fundamental sense of justice, redemption, and fair play. At the same time, the particular course the occupation took cannot be understood outside the context of the developing global Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. With Communist hegemony in the Russian Far East, in Manchuria, in northern Korea, and (after 1949) even in China, American policymakers felt the urgent need for a stable, reliable ally in northeast Asia. Thus, in the American occupation of Japan, the interests of enlightened humanitarianism and cold-blooded realpolitik were, for the most part, conveniently aligned. Indeed, it is important to consider the long shadow that the occupation of Japan has cast over the conduct of American foreign policy in the decades since World War II. On the surface, the goals of the occupation authorities may have seemed positively herculean: the transformation of a warlike, authoritarian, and economically devastated enemy into a peaceful, democratic, and prosperous ally. To the careful historian, the fact that the occupation authorities succeeded so dramatically in achieving these objectives must suggest that, for all the unquestionable drama and heroics of the period, their task was not so Quixotic as it may have appeared, and that Japanese society was, in important ways, already primed for the radical reforms the occupiers set in motion. The Postwar Occupation of Japan looks at the history from the surrender to end World War II to the independence of the modern Japanese nation.

Download or read book Japan s Postwar History written by Gary D. Allinson and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan's Postwar History is the only book that provides an integrated analysis of Japan's social, political, and economic history from 1932 until the present day. Gary D. Allinson has substantially updated his work for a second edition that takes Japan from the bursting of the economic bubble through the long recession of the 1990s and up to 2003. Book jacket.

Download or read book The Price of a Constitution written by Tetsuya Kataoka and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 1991 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of the origin of Japan's post-war regime and the imposition of the "no war" constitution. The book argues that Japan's economic miracle has been a compensatory response to its deprived political status.

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 Local History and War Memories in Hokkaido written by Philip A. Seaton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-07-24 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan, barely features in most histories of the Second World War. However, the combination of distinctive war experiences, a vibrant set of local historian groups, and powerful media organizations disseminating local war history, has generated an identifiable set of local collective memories. Hokkaidoʼs status as an early colonial acquisition also makes the island an important vantage point from which to reassess the course and nature of the Japanese Empire. This book argues that Hokkaido’s experiences of war and its militarized post-war constitutes a local case study with a much greater national and international significance on both theoretical and empirical grounds than first impressions might suggest. Using Japanese-language sources presented for the first time in English and a number of detailed local history case studies, it offers a fascinating and hitherto little-known perspective on the Second World War. It also combines a comprehensive theory of how war memories operate at the local level within a broad historical context that explains Hokkaidoʼs pivotal role within Japanese imperial history. Demonstrating that understanding local history and memories is essential for a nuanced understanding of national history and memories, the book will be highly valuable to students and scholars of Japanese history, Second World War history, and Asian history.

Download or read book Democracy in Occupied Japan written by Mark E. Caprio and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-03-06 with total page 501 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With expert contributions from both the US and Japan, this book examines the legacies of the US Occupation on Japanese politics and society, and discusses the long-term impact of the Occupation on contemporary Japan. Focusing on two central themes – democracy and the interplay of US-initiated reforms and Japan's endogenous drive for democratization and social justice – the contributors address key questions: How did the US authorities and the Japanese people define democracy? To what extent did America impose their notions of democracy on Japan? How far did the Japanese pursue impulses toward reform, rooted in their own history and values? Which reforms were readily accepted and internalized, and which were ultimately subverted by the Japanese as impositions from outside? These questions are tackled by exploring the dynamics of the reform process from the three perspectives of innovation, continuity and compromise, specifically determining the effect that this period made to Japanese social, economic, and political understanding. Critically examines previously unexplored issues that influenced postwar Japan such as the effect of labour and healthcare legislation, textbook revision, and minority policy. Illuminating contemporary Japan, its achievements, its potential and its quandaries, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Japanese-US relations, Japanese history and Japanese politics.

Download or read book Thailand in the Cold War written by Matthew Phillips and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-09-16 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thailand’s position during the Cold War was ambiguous: the country’s political leadership was very keen to maintain the country’s independence on the world stage, yet at the same time was anxious to establish the country’s credentials as staunchly anti-communist. However, as this book argues, Thailand, though never formally a client state of the United States, was very closely embedded in the Western camp through the commitment of Thailand’s cosmopolitan urban communities to developing a modern, consumerist lifestyle. Considering popular culture, including film, literature, fashion, tourism and attitudes towards Buddhism, the book shows how an ideology of consumerism and integration into a "free world" culture centred in the United States gradually took hold and became firmly established, and how this popular culture and ideology was fundamental in determining Thailand’s international political alignment.

Download or read book Street Performers and Society in Urban Japan 1600 1900 written by Gerald Groemer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-01-13 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a thoroughly researched and meticulously documented study of the emergence, development, and demise of music, theatre, recitation, and dance witnessed by the populace on thoroughfares, plazas, and makeshift outdoor performance spaces in Edo/Tokyo. For some three hundred years this city was the centre of such arts, both sacred and secular. This study outlines the nature of the performances, explores the social relations which lay behind them, and reveals vast complexity: an obligation of gift-giving on the part of observers; performers who were often economic migrants fallen on hard times; relations of performance to social class; a class system much more finely gradated than the official four caste system; and institutions of professional organization and registration, enforced by government, with penalties for unregistered performers. The book discusses how performing, witnessing, and rewarding performance were closely bound up with economy, society and government, how the interaction between various groups related to socio-economic advancement, how the system of street performance reinforced social control, and how the balance between different groups shifted over time.

Download or read book Japan in Upheaval written by Dagfinn Gatu and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-04-21 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the widespread protests which took place in Japan in 1960 against the renewal of the US-Japan Security Treaty and assesses their far-reaching impact. It emphasizes the scale of the protests, at the climax of which hundreds of thousands of protestors surrounded Japan's National Diet building on nearly a daily basis, and large protests took place in other cities and towns all across Japan. It considers the results of the protests, which included the cancellation of President Eisenhower’s state visit and Prime Minister Kishi’s removal from office, and argues that although the protests apparently failed in that the Security Treaty was renewed and the Liberal Democratic Party remained in power, nevertheless the protests brought about subtle lasting changes in Japan: they revealed many latent societal and political tensions, and they compelled the ruling establishment to reshape itself, having to take seriously non-militarization and the need to listen to the people. The events are analysed in terms of social movement dynamics, with comparative references to the Western European protests of 1968.

Download or read book Health Policy and Disease in Colonial and Post Colonial Hong Kong 1841 2003 written by Ka-che Yip and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07-15 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Besides looking at major outbreaks of diseases and how they were coped with, diseases such as malaria, smallpox, tuberculosis, plague, venereal disease, avian flu and SARS, this book also examines how the successive government regimes in Hong Kong took action to prevent diseases and control potential threats to health. It shows how policies impacted the various Chinese and non-Chinese groups, and how policies were often formulated as a result of negotiations between these different groups. By considering developments over a long historical period, the book contrasts the different approaches in the periods of colonial rule, Japanese occupation, post-war reconstruction, transition to decolonization, and Hong Kong as Special Administrative Region within the People’s Republic of China.

Download or read book Science Technology and Medicine in the Modern Japanese Empire written by David G. Wittner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-22 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science, technology, and medicine all contributed to the emerging modern Japanese empire and conditioned key elements of post-war development. As the only emerging non-Western country that was a colonial power in its own right, Japan utilized these fields not only to define itself as racially different from other Asian countries and thus justify its imperialist activities, but also to position itself within the civilized and enlightened world with the advantages of modern science, technologies, and medicine. This book explores the ways in which scientists, engineers and physicians worked directly and indirectly to support the creation of a new Japanese empire, focussing on the eve of World War I and linking their efforts to later post-war developments. By claiming status as a modern, internationally-engaged country, the Japanese government was faced with having to control pathogens that might otherwise not have threatened the nation. Through the use of traditional and innovative techniques, this volume shows how the government was able to fulfil the state’s responsibility to protect society to varying degrees. Chapter 14 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Download or read book Suicide in Twentieth Century Japan written by Francesca Di Marco and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-01-29 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan’s suicide phenomenon has fascinated both the media and academics, although many questions and paradoxes embedded in the debate on suicide have remained unaddressed in the existing literature, including the assumption that Japan is a "Suicide Nation". This tendency causes common misconceptions about the suicide phenomenon and its features. Aiming to redress the situation, this book explores how the idea of suicide in Japan was shaped, reinterpreted and reinvented from the 1900s to the 1980s. Providing a timely contribution to the underexplored history of suicide, it also adds to the current heated debates on the contemporary way we organize our thoughts on life and death, health and wealth, on the value of the individual, and on gender. The book explores the genealogy and development of modern suicide in Japan by examining the ways in which beliefs about the nation’s character, historical views of suicide, and the cultural legitimation of voluntary death acted to influence even the scientific conceptualization of suicide in Japan. It thus unveils the way in which the language on suicide was transformed throughout the century according to the fluctuating relationship between suicide and the discourse on national identity, and pathological and cultural narratives. In doing so, it proposes a new path to understanding the norms and mechanisms of the process of the conceptualization of suicide itself. Filling in a critical gap in three particular fields of historical study: the history of suicide, the history of death, and the cultural history of twentieth century Japan, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of Japanese Studies and Japanese History.

Download or read book Managing Famine Flood and Earthquake in China written by Lauri Paltemaa and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-05 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China suffers frequently from many types of natural disasters, which have affected the lives of many millions of Chinese. The steps which the Chinese state has taken to prevent disasters, mitigate their consequences, and reconstruct in the aftermath of disasters are therefore key issues. This book examines the single metropolis of Tianjin in northern China, a city which has suffered particularly badly from natural disasters – the great famine of 1958-61, the great flood of 1963 and the great earthquake of 1976. It discusses how the city managed these disasters, what policies and measures were taken to prevent and mitigate disasters, and to promote reconstruction afterwards. It also explores who suffered from and who benefited from the disasters. Overall, the book shows how disaster management was erratic, sometimes managed highly efficiently and in other cases disappointingly delayed and inept. It concludes that, although the Maoist state possessed formidable resources, disaster management was always constrained by other political and economic considerations, and was never an automatic priority.