Download or read book Financial Euphoria Consumer Culture and Literature of 1980s Japan written by Ikuho Amano and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-12-30 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an interdisciplinary study of Japan during the socially euphoric years of the Bubble Economy in the 1980s. Shedding light on consumer experiences, this study explores the socio-cultural landscape of Japan, the nation that boasted the second largest economy in the late twentieth century. Drawing its analysis from various media sources, popular literary works, and public reports, the book articulates how the late 1980s calibrated consumer demands, lifestyles, and perceptions of wealth. Through an examination of the qualitative effects of ‘Bubble money’ on consumers, the book disentangles the anatomy of the festive ambience in the economic phase, closely reading fictional and non-fictional literary works that play the role of reportage, critique, and satire. Through observations of human behaviours in consumption, the book reveals psychosomatic experiences and self-consciousness. Featuring a wide range of sources from Japanese media and literary works which have yet to be translated for an English audience, this book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of modern Japanese culture and literature who are interested in the socio-economic landscape of late-twentieth-century Japan.

Download or read book Financial Euphoria Consumer Culture and Literature of 1980s Japan written by Ikuho Amano and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-12-30 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an interdisciplinary study of Japan during the socially euphoric years of the Bubble Economy in the 1980s. Shedding light on consumer experiences, this study explores the socio-cultural landscape of Japan, the nation that boasted the second largest economy in the late twentieth century. Drawing its analysis from various media sources, popular literary works, and public reports, the book articulates how the late 1980s calibrated consumer demands, lifestyles, and perceptions of wealth. Through an examination of the qualitative effects of ‘Bubble money’ on consumers, the book disentangles the anatomy of the festive ambience in the economic phase, closely reading fictional and non-fictional literary works that play the role of reportage, critique, and satire. Through observations of human behaviours in consumption, the book reveals psychosomatic experiences and self-consciousness. Featuring a wide range of sources from Japanese media and literary works which have yet to be translated for an English audience, this book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of modern Japanese culture and literature who are interested in the socio-economic landscape of late-twentieth-century Japan.

Download or read book Political Economy of the Tokyo Olympics written by Miyo Aramata and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-06-16 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an analysis of both contemporary Tokyo and the contemporary Olympic Games, emphasizing the role of late-stage capitalism and political economy in shaping both. The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games were mired in scandal from the beginning of the bidding process all the way through to the end of the games. This was further exacerbated by the emergency postponement to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, with many public opinion polls supporting further postponement or cancelation in 2021. The contributors to this volume look at the Tokyo 2020 Games in the context of other modern games and the struggle to use the games as an economic stimulus. They reveal the reality of the Olympic development in Tokyo based on evidence and concrete policy analysis. This is a valuable resource for scholars both of contemporary Japan and of the Olympics and other mega-events.

Download or read book Civil Society and International Students in Japan written by Polina Ivanova and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-07-14 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores encounters and interactions between international students and local civil society organizations (CSOs) in Japan. Based on the results of a cross-case analysis, this study reveals the possibilities for international students in Japan of creating social capital in the short term in culturally and socially diverse groups. While a conventional approach sees universities as the main support providers, this research shows the role of local CSOs as alternative actors offering international student support. Unlike the long-standing paradigm viewing Japanese civil society as top-down and closely following the government, this book uncovers many decentralized and bottom-up organizational types. Furthermore, it highlights an active part taken by foreign staff and volunteers in Japanese CSOs, which challenges the guest–host dichotomy of the previous literature. Presenting a reconsidered insight into the role of international students and their interaction with CSOs in community building, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Asian studies and migration studies as well as organizers of CSOs and faculty of international higher education institutions.

Download or read book The Presidentialization of Japanese Politics written by Masahiro Iwasaki and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-04-14 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are we seeing the presidentialization of politics in Japan? Certainly, many recent prime ministers have demonstrated powerful leadership, notably Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe. While the phenomenon of presidentialization has been much discussed for years, the Japanese case has not received much attention in the English language. Iwasaki analyses the state of Japanese politics using the established analytical framework of presidentialization – looking at leadership power resources, leadership autonomy, and the personalization of the electoral process – and assesses the factors that have been claimed to lead to similar changes in other countries. He argues that there are also unique variables that contribute to the presidentialization of Japanese politics. Most notably, the introduction of public subsidies to political parties and electoral reform in 1994. A valuable contribution to the global scholarship on presidentialization, which will be of particular interest to scholars of Japanese politics.

Download or read book Japanese Propriety Past and Present written by Florian Coulmas and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-05-31 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book thus offers a fresh view on Japanese society focussing on the role of comportment for group cohesiveness. It explores the stereotype that Japan is the world’s most polite country, examining how proper conduct is acquired and expressed, and how the apparent conflict with some of the concepts considered essential for Western modernity, such as society, freedom and the individual, are balanced with Japan’s great emphasis on courtesy, politeness and civility. By comparing the present situation in Japan with behavioural standards of former periods as well as with other cultural traditions the book explains some of the distinctive features of present-day Japanese society. Overall the book argues that Japan is a prime example of multiple modernities concerning individuals, collectives and relationships between state and society.

Download or read book Japan s Triple Disaster written by Natalia Novikova and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-06-09 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors of this volume discuss questions of disaster and justice from various interdisciplinary vantage points, including public policy, science and technology studies, law, gender, sociology and psychology, social and cultural anthropology, town planning and tourism. The term "natural" disasters is a misnomer; cataclysmic natural events that impact humans can often be anticipated and their consequences should be prevented – the failure to do so is a failure of politics, policy and risk planning. Presenting research on more than a decade after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the chapters highlight not only the manifold challenges in the direct disaster response and policymaking but also the difficulties of "just" long- term recovery. Arguing for just distribution, recognition and participation, this volume provides a diversity of perspectives on these issues as experienced after the 2011 disasters through detailed and nuanced analyses presented by early career researchers and senior academics coming from various countries and continents of the world. The insights of this volume galvanise the discussion of disaster governance and highlight the variety of disaster (in)justices and the ways disasters force people to contest and reimagine their relationships with their countries, neighborhoods, families, and friends. A valuable read for scholars and students researching issues related to mass emergencies, justice theory and civil activism.

Download or read book The American Occupation of Japan and Okinawa written by Michael S. Molasky and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-08-12 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do the Japanese and Okinawans remember Occupation? How is memory constructed and transmitted? Michael Molasky explores these questions through careful, sensitive readings of literature from mainland Japan and Okinawa. This book sheds light on difficult issues of war, violence, prostitution, colonialism and post-colonialism in the context of the Occupations of Japan and Okinawa.

Download or read book Soundings in Time written by Roy Starrs and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-09-18 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first full length, and long overdue, study of Kawabata, Japans first Nobel laureate for literature and the most widely known for his novels Snow Country (1960) and Sound of the Mountain (1970).

Download or read book Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture written by P. W. Galbraith and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-08-30 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the most complete and compelling account of idols and celebrity in Japanese media culture to date. Engaging with the study of media, gender and celebrity, and sensitive to history and the contemporary scene, these interdisciplinary essays cover male and female idols, production and consumption, industrial structures and fan movements.

Download or read book How Asia Works written by Joe Studwell and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2013-07-02 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A good read for anyone who wants to understand what actually determines whether a developing economy will succeed.” —Bill Gates, “Top 5 Books of the Year” An Economist Best Book of the Year from a reporter who has spent two decades in the region, and who the Financial Times said “should be named chief myth-buster for Asian business.” In How Asia Works, Joe Studwell distills his extensive research into the economies of nine countries—Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and China—into an accessible, readable narrative that debunks Western misconceptions, shows what really happened in Asia and why, and for once makes clear why some countries have boomed while others have languished. Studwell’s in-depth analysis focuses on three main areas: land policy, manufacturing, and finance. Land reform has been essential to the success of Asian economies, giving a kick-start to development by utilizing a large workforce and providing capital for growth. With manufacturing, industrial development alone is not sufficient, Studwell argues. Instead, countries need “export discipline,” a government that forces companies to compete on the global scale. And in finance, effective regulation is essential for fostering, and sustaining growth. To explore all of these subjects, Studwell journeys far and wide, drawing on fascinating examples from a Philippine sugar baron’s stifling of reform to the explosive growth at a Korean steel mill. “Provocative . . . How Asia Works is a striking and enlightening book . . . A lively mix of scholarship, reporting and polemic.” —The Economist

Download or read book This Time Is Different written by Carmen M. Reinhart and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2011-08-07 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An empirical investigation of financial crises during the last 800 years.

Download or read book Good Economics for Hard Times written by Abhijit V. Banerjee and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The winners of the Nobel Prize show how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social and political problems of our day. Figuring out how to deal with today's critical economic problems is perhaps the great challenge of our time. Much greater than space travel or perhaps even the next revolutionary medical breakthrough, what is at stake is the whole idea of the good life as we have known it. Immigration and inequality, globalization and technological disruption, slowing growth and accelerating climate change--these are sources of great anxiety across the world, from New Delhi and Dakar to Paris and Washington, DC. The resources to address these challenges are there--what we lack are ideas that will help us jump the wall of disagreement and distrust that divides us. If we succeed, history will remember our era with gratitude; if we fail, the potential losses are incalculable. In this revolutionary book, renowned MIT economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo take on this challenge, building on cutting-edge research in economics explained with lucidity and grace. Original, provocative, and urgent, Good Economics for Hard Times makes a persuasive case for an intelligent interventionism and a society built on compassion and respect. It is an extraordinary achievement, one that shines a light to help us appreciate and understand our precariously balanced world.

Download or read book Decadent Literature in Twentieth Century Japan written by I. Amano and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-12-17 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Decadence is a concept that designates a given historical moment as a phase of decay and valorizes the past as an irretrievable golden age. This study offers an innovative examination of a century of Japanese fiction through the analytical prism of decadence.

Download or read book Consumption in Asia written by Beng-Huat Chua and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-05-03 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in this collection challenge conventional ideas about consumption and consumerism: they consider if the inundation of Western consumer goods have created identity confusions among the affluent in Asia, and if the expansion of consumer culture really does threaten the stability of politically anti-liberal states in Asia. This is the first book to analyse in detial consumerism in the region, and will be valuable reading for students and researchers in Asian studies, economics, politics and cultural studies.

Download or read book Consuming Japan written by Noboru Toyoshima and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Capital in the Twenty First Century written by Thomas Piketty and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-14 with total page 817 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In this work the author analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality. He shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality--the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth--today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values if political action is not taken. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, the author says, and may do so again. This original work reorients our understanding of economic history and confronts us with sobering lessons for today.